Yogi battle brews on: Estate fight continues between Yogi Bhajan's widow, Bibiji & female assistants
by Gursant Singh 
, Yuba City California USA, Friday, December 30, 2011, 14:55 (4717 days ago)
edited by Gursant Singh, Saturday, December 31, 2011, 14:29
Yogi battle brews on Estate fight continues between Yogi Bhajan's widow, female assistants
Tom Sharpe | The New Mexican
Posted: Thursday, December 29, 2011
![[image]](images/uploaded/image320.jpg)
Musicians perform during a 2004 memorial service in Española for Yogi Bhajan. Yogi Bhajan’s widow is involved in a legal dispute with the late spiritual leader’s assistants over distribution of his assets. - New Mexican file photo
More than seven years after his death, Yogi Bhajan's widow and his younger female assistants disagree over how to divide his multimillion-dollar estate — which now includes the trademark rights to Yogi Tea.
Less than a year before his death in 2004, Yogi Bhajan, founder of a religious community near Española, signed a codicil to his 1987 will that called for a portion of his estate to go to a living trust to support 15 of his assistants.
His widow, Inderjit Kaur Puri, also known as Bibiji, did not immediately move to open a probate on his estate or to challenge the codicil assigning at least $4 million to the trust.
But in October 2007, the three trustees of the living trust sued Puri, claiming she was delaying distribution of funds to the trust by claiming she knew nothing about it.
In a counterclaim, Puri asked that the trustees be removed because, as three of the 15 assistants benefiting from the trust, they are in breach of their fiduciary duties.
Noting that Yogi Bhajan was suffering from physical and mental ailments at the time the codicil was signed, the counterclaim says the "assistants to Yogi Bhajan signed his name to the documents."
In April 2009, state District Judge James Hall dismissed the trustees' complaint but left the counterclaim intact. Hall retired at the end of 2009, and the case was transferred to District Judge Sarah Singleton, who waited until Nov. 7 to hold her first meeting on the case. She set a trial date for March 19.
Neither the trustees' lawyer, J. Katherine Girard, nor the trustees themselves, Sopurkh Kaur Khalsa, Shakti Parwha Kaur Khalsa and Ek Ong Kar Kaur Khalsa, have been available for comment.
Puri's attorney, Surjit Soni of Pasadena, Calif., agreed that the former assistants are due income from the trust. But he said that because Yogi Bhajan had handled his family's financial affairs, "like most guys tend to do," Puri was unaware of his donations to the living trust.
Soni, who is also Puri's nephew, said he is asking the judge to apply community-property rules to the case, so that the "marital estate" is divided in half and payments to the 15 assistants come out of Yogi Bhajan's portion, not Puri's.
Not until 2009, five years after Yogi Bhajan's death, did Puri move to open Yogi Bhajan's will to probate proceedings in state District Court in Santa Fe. Judge Barbara Vigil assigned Christopher Cullen, a Santa Fe lawyer, as the personal representative of the estate, but "gave him very specific but very limited instructions about what he could investigate and how he could investigate," Soni said.
As a result, Cullen was unable to identify all of the assets of the estate, and Vigil ordered the probate closed, "saying no other assets have been discovered," Soni said. "We disagree with that because we don't think the investigation was complete." He said he is appealing that closure.
This year, the estate became significantly more valuable because of a federal trademark case over Yogi Tea — a blend of black tea, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, ginger and peppercorns that Yogi Bhajan used to serve at his kundalini yoga classes and went on to sell at his restaurants and health-food stores.
In 2004, a Eugene, Ore., company called Golden Temple of Oregon began marketing Yogi Tea, using Yogi Bhajan's name and likeness, under an agreement with him. This continued for four years after his death, with royalties split between Puri, the assistants' trust and a religious trust. In 2008, Golden Temple quit paying royalties and using Yogi Bhajan's name and likeness, but continued to use the name Yogi Tea to begin selling another tea called just Yogi.
Puri sued, and this fall an arbiter ordered Golden Temple to cease using the trademark by Jan. 1 and pay $822,302 to Yogi Bhajan's estate, based on sales in recent years. With Yogi Tea sales of $27 million in 2009 in the United States and Europe, the Eugene Register-Guard estimated the heirs might be owed another $485,905 by the end of 2012 — plus what they might gain from selling the trademark to others.
A separate but related case was brought in Oregon state court by the ministers of the religious trust, Unto Infinity, against Golden Temple. This month, a Portland, Ore., judge ruled that Golden Temple's CEO, Kartar Singh Khalsa, unjustly enriched himself and other company executives at the expense of Unto Infinity. Monetary damages have yet to be determined, but Unto Infinity is seeking $50 million. Several other trademarks used by Golden Temple, in addition to Yogi Tea, remain in contention.
Soni, Puri's attorney, said these rulings prove that not all the assets of the estate were identified — partly because the trustees for the assistants did not thoroughly investigate. "We demonstrated there are trademarks that the trustees did not appreciate, recognize, pursue, claim — that we, at great personal expense, have been able to secure," he said.
The litigation over Yogi Tea has been covered closely by the Sikh News Network (sikhnn.com). A November article there pointed out that the assistants are "Caucasians" who converted to Sikhism and assumed their Sikh surnames, posting photographs of the former assistants who were not wearing the turbans or dress worn by traditional Sikhs.
"Peraim Kaur, one of his personal staff members, in her testimony for another lawsuit in Oregon, described how she worked long hours for little pay," says the article. "She told the court she had no vacations and was on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It also is common knowledge that his personal staff was discouraged from having outside relationships."
The Sikh News Network's correspondent on those stories, Kamalia Kaur, described herself as a "survivor of the YB [Yogi Bhajan] cult." Kaur, now 58 and living in Bellingham, Wash., said she joined Yogi Bhajan's Healthy, Happy, Holy Organization, or 3HO, 40 years ago after taking a kundalini yoga class with her husband at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
Years later, while living in the Bay Area of California, she began questioning the "organization's dysfunctional side," she wrote in an email. "Soon I was shunned — and former students started calling me and telling me their horrible stories. Then I got a threatening phone call."
Kaur eventually divorced her husband, who remained with Yogi Bhajan's organization. She gave up custody of her three children, turned over her money to her ex-husband, "and hit the streets. But I couldn't stop studying the story of my life," she wrote. "When you lose the years 18-37, your prime, to ... serving a sociopath, you might as well dedicate a few years to warning and educating others about authoritarian groups."
She now moderates an online forum called "The Wacko World of Yogi Bhajan" on which both Kaur and others have referred repeatedly to Yogi Bhajan's assistants as his harem. But that may the least of the charges on the website, where Yogi Bhajan is accused of a variety of illegal activities, including fraudulent marketing schemes, drug dealing and corruption.
Recently, Kaur has pointed out that one of Yogi Bhajan's former assistants was an aide to former Gov. Bill Richardson. "Siri Trang Kaur is one of the younger women listed among the fifteen 'personal assistants' in Bhajan's trust," she wrote. "She's cut in for six percent of the distribution in the trust that's part of Bibiji's continuing legal dispute with the harem."
Siri Trang Kaur, who sometimes uses the last name Khalsa, is listed as an associate of Albuquerque political and public relations specialist Doug Turner in a firm called Policy and Positions. The company's website says she was the director of marketing for the firm that first brought Yogi Tea and other Golden Temple products to the market, worked as a foreign policy adviser in Richardson's 2008 presidential campaign, and that she is now "on assignment with the U.S. State Department in Afghanistan." She did not return an email seeking comment on this story.
Soni dismissed Kamalia Kaur's allegations: "We have resisted getting involved in that kind of silly debate. If she's got an ax to grind, she's got an ax to grind. If her experience is less than optimal, that's fine. ...
"What exactly is a cult? Every born-again community, whether it's Baptist, Anglican, Buddhist, every one of them is a cult. Cult, unfortunately, has a negative suggestion and implication."
Kaur is hardly the only former Yogi Bhajan disciple to break with 3HO. Guru Sant Singh Khalsa, who in 1982 unsuccessfully challenged the U.S. Department of Defense's rule banning servicemembers from wearing traditional Sikh garb, said he became disillusioned after visiting India and realizing that real Sikh culture was different than Yogi Bhajan had led him to believe.
Now living in Yuba City, Calif., Gura Sant said Yogi Bhajan's devotion to tantric yoga, astrology and other "new age" practices would be forbidden by traditional Sikhs, who also would abhor the "cult of personality" that sprung up around him. He recalled that Yogi Bhajan collected art that traditional Sikhs would consider pornographic and regularly slept in his room with one of his "secretaries" while his wife slept in another room.
As early as 1977, Time magazine took notice of rumors about Yogi Bhajan's assistants. "Bhajan has repeatedly been accused of being a womanizer," it said in a story about 3HO. "Colleen Hoskins, who worked seven months at his New Mexico residence, reports that men are scarcely seen there. He is served, she says, by a coterie of as many as 14 women, some of whom attend his baths, give him group massages, and take turns spending the night in his room while his wife sleeps elsewhere."
Contact Tom Sharpe at 986-3080 or tsharpe@sfnewmexican.com.
Most traditional Sikhs find Yogi Bhajan’s use of the Golden Temple for commercial profit abhorrent, as exemplified by this comment from a traditional Sikh: “The Golden Temple is the English name for Darbar Sahib located in Amritsar India. The Golden Temple is a central Gurdwara (house of worship) for Sikhs everywhere. Yogi Bhajan was dead wrong to use the Golden Temple to sell breakfast cereal and tea, to feed his wallet and ego. Sikhism teaches to never mix faith with commerce. Sikh teachings are offered freely. No one should profit when sharing the Sikh religion. And no one should trivialize other's religious traditions, much less profit from cheapening us.”
http://www.causes.com/causes/509680-stop-hearthside-foods-use-of-the-golden-temple-brand/about
I also want to point out that I have changed my name to Gursant Singh from the sacrilegious form of Guru Sant which Yogi Bhajan gave me using astrology and numerology which are against the Sikh code of conduct . Dr. Iqbal Singh who has written five books on Sikh history explains best why this change in the form of my name was necessary. …” Gursant that meaning is Saint of Guru…. In the Sikh History word Gur has been used by the Sikhs. The Guru word is used before the name of the ten Guru Ji and Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji and not before the name of any human being.” Yogi Bhajan regularly gave these sacrilegious forms of Sikh names in order to corrupt and destroy the relationship of American followers of Sikhism against the traditional Sikh community.
http://gurmukhyoga.com/forum/index.php?id=380
Now that Yogi Bhajan's Sikh Dharma Worldwide Organization has won their big lawsuit against Yogi Bhajan's Unto Infinity Board, will SDW continue their anti Sikh agenda?
Judge Issues Ruling
It's clear from the Judge's ruling that Yogi Bhajan had total control of western Sikhs and Bhajan's Sikh Dharma in promoting anti- Sikh tantric yoga and occult astrology. Yogi Bhajan acted like a mini-pope! Judge Roberts says, "During his lifetime, Yogi Bhajan maintained exclusive central authority over the organizations he created to advance the world view and practices he taught. He(Yogi Bhajan) maintained all the reins of ultimate power and direction in his own hands until his final incapacity and death" Dr. Trilochan Singh says in a book critical of Yogi Bhajan, "Yogi Bhajan was absolutely frank in what he said and I believe every word of it. I asked him Is Sikhism the core of his teachings of Tantric Yoga? Which of these two contradictory disciplines is his basic philosophy? To this question he perhaps honestly replied that Tantra (White as he calls it) is his basic faith while Sikhism is only an off-shoot of his Tantric system."
'Findings and Conclusions'
Here is what Judge Roberts says:
The dispute involves a Russian nesting doll of nonprofit and for-profit entities, organized by and through Yogi Bhajan beginning in the mid-1970’s. Certain organizations were devoted to education; to maintenance of spiritual records; to promotion of religious functions, such as the ordination and instruction of Sikh Dharma ministers, and other nonprofit objectives. Other profit-making organizations were formed by individual adherents, who contributed the ownership of the businesses to provide a source of support, prestige, and employment for the Sikh Dharma community. Yogi Bhajan, the founder of the Western movement of Sikh Dharma that is involved in this controversy, and a teacher of the related practices of Kundalini yoga, came to the United States from India. A charismatic leader and teacher, Yogi Bhajan attracted a body of adherents to some or all of the practices and precepts of Sikh Dharma of the Western Hemisphere. This body of adherents is sometimes referred to, here, as the Sikh Dharma community and its institutions as the Yogi Bhajan inspired organizations. Yogi Bhajan taught Kundalini yoga and, in that role, introduced many students to his spiritual beliefs as well.
Most of the individuals involved in the present controversy initially became interested in Sikh Dharma through seeking to learn the practice of yoga, on or near college campuses, as young men and women during the 1970’s and 1980’s.
Later, the seat of the corporate network shifted to Oregon and New Mexico entities, including nonprofit and for-profit entities held by the nonprofits. (SSS of SD, the California corporation sole, was designed to terminate at Yogi Bhajan’s death, and its assets to be transferred to an Oregon religious corporation.) In the design and conduct of many or most of these later-founded organizations, Yogi Bhajan was assisted by Roy Lambert, a Portland lawyer with the firm of Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt. After Yogi Bhajan’s death, Lambert continued to serve as legal counsel for many of the Yogi Bhajan inspired entities, including Unto Infinity, LLC, and KIIT, defendants here.
Yogi Bhajan also designated an inner circle of trusted lieutenants to occupy positions in the control and administration of his interlocking organizations, but he maintained all the reins of ultimate power and direction in his own hands until his final incapacity and death.3
The Yogi Bhajan affiliated organizations included for-profit enterprises including, most importantly, a private security company, Akal Security, Inc., and a manufacturer and distributor of tea and cereal products, Golden Temple, Inc. The for-profit enterprises were formed by Sikh Dharma adherents and contributed to Yogi Bhajan inspired non-profit entities (initially, Akal was contributed to Sikh Dharma-NM, and Golden Temple, Inc., to Sikh Dharma, Inc.). Their profits provided substantial support to the non-profit activities of the Sikh Dharma affiliated organizations.
In addition to appointing lieutenants to roles in the supervision of his organizations, Yogi Bhajan maintained personal attendants, a group of women upon whom he became dependent for day-to-day and hour-to-hour support and companionship in his home as his health declined toward death from complications of diabetes and kidney failure. In the fall of 2004, this personal staff lived with him in a New Mexico residential compound called the Ranch. They served rotating shifts so that one of them was with him at all times of the day and night.
During Yogi Bhajan’s life, his personal retainers and administrative staff served at very modest compensation; however, it was widely understood that he had assured these personal assistants life-long compensation. This promise was known as the Yogi Bhajan Assurances. In his will, Yogi Bhajan planned to fulfill the promise by creating a trust called the Staff Endowment, to which he gave a half interest in royalties earned by the license of his name and likeness for use on the products of Golden Temple, Inc. The beneficiaries of the Staff Endowment were the former personal retainers and staff, and the income derived by that trust was intended to fund their promised life-time income.
However, after the death of Yogi Bhajan in 2004, the widow of Yogi Bhajan (referred to as Bibiji) challenged the gift of intellectual property rights. As a result, the funding stream for Staff Endowment was cast into doubt. It became questionable whether the funds ever would be paid, because of the claims by Bibiji, still unresolved as of the time of the trial of this matter in 2011.
In 2003, anticipating the need to organize the affiliated entities to function after his death, Yogi Bhajan created Unto Infinity, LLC, an Oregon nonprofit LLC, to act as the administrative center of the organizations comprising his nonprofit and for-profit network of entities. The Organizational Agreement of Unto Infinity provides that the sole original member of Unto Infinity was Yogi Bhajan. Its board of managers was made up of Yogi Bhajan and four of his trusted lieutenants. In a “Proclamation” signed by Yogi Bhajan in June 2004 (when he understood that he was dying, and had discontinued any but palliative care) he stated:
“Whereas the Siri Singh Sahib [the title held by Yogi Bhajan] has the responsibility of promulgating and stating the rules and procedures of the Sikh Dharma,
And
“Whereas there is a need for the orderly and just administration of the Dharma,
“Therefore, I hereby proclaim that Unto Infinity, LLC, is the entity authorized by me to continue to exercise the administrative authority of the office of the Siri Singh Sahib of Sikh Dharma once I no longer occupy that office, in all those cases where authorization by the Siri Singh Sahib [i.e., Yogi Bhajan] is required in the articles, bylaws, or any contractual commitment of a Sikh Dharma affiliated organization.
“This Proclamation is hereby adopted under the authority granted to me as the Siri Singh Sahib of Sikh Dharma, I set my hand and seal this 30 day of June, 2004,
[signed] “Siri Singh Sahib Bhai Sahib
“Harbhajian Singh Khalsa Yogiji”
This proclamation stated that the purpose of Unto Infinity was to serve as the “administrative authority” of the chief office of the religious movement, and consequently to be integral to the religious organizations (although it does not have the effect of altering the corporate documents of the various affected corporations and companies).
An undated Amended and Restated Operating Agreement (Ex. 66) reflects that Yogi Bhajan was replaced as the sole member of Unto Infinity by the Siri Singh Sahib Corporation (SSSC). SSSC is an Oregon nonprofit religious corporation that had been formed to serve as the sole member of Sikh Dharma, Inc., after Yogi Bhajan's death or incapacity. Subsequently, it apparently was given the same role in Unto Infinity. SSSC itself has no members.
Pursuant to the 1997 Articles of SSSC, after the death or incapacity of Yogi Bhajan, the directors of SSSC were to be those persons he had previously designated in a written directive given in confidence to Lambert, as corporate attorney, and to the Siri Sikdar Sahib (or Sahiba) of Sikh Dharma (designated to that post by Yogi Bhajan as his spiritual successor), who would also become a permanent member of that board.
However, after the death of Yogi Bhajan, a succession of Restated Articles for SSSC were filed, each certified by Sopurkh Kaur Khalsa (also a member of the board of Unto Infinity) as president of SSSC as having been adopted by Yogi Bhajan on October 1, 2, and 3 respectively -- the three days leading up to his death.
Lambert denied that Yogi Bhajan had left any designation of a successor board that was sufficiently formal to satisfy the terms of the SSSC articles, and accordingly, in lieu of such a designation, the four-member Unto Infinity board assumed complete control of SSSC after Yogi Bhajan’s death. Because SSSC was the sole (but powerless) member of Unto Infinity, the board of Unto Infinity obtained comprehensive and unchecked control (directly or indirectly) of all other Yogi Bhajan inspired nonprofit and for-profit companies and corporations. The restated Articles designate the remaining managers of Unto Infinity LLC to serve as the board of SSSC, to succeed Yogi Bhajan in that role if no other designation is made. Exs. 104, 105, 106. Parties in this litigation have not asked the court to determine the validity of those changes, and the court therefore does not pass on their validity.
SSSC, the sole member of Unto Infinity, has no operations or property. Its existence, as a member, is a legal requirement for Unto Infinity's existence as a limited liability company.
In this somewhat convoluted manner, the sole successors of Yogi Bhajan, as the ultimate and unlimited managers of the entire network of nonprofit and for-profit affiliated entities, became the members of the Unto Infinity board.
The Unto Infinity board members upon Yogi Bhajan’s death were Siri Ram Kaur Khalsa and defendants Peraim Kaur Khalsa, Siri Karm Kaur Khalsa, and Sopurkh Kaur Khalsa. (Siri Ram Kaur Khalsa resigned from the board after the 2007 transaction that is the center of this controversy but before the complaints were filed in this case. She is not a defendant.)
In 2005, the Unto Infinity board members exercised their power to place defendant Kartar Singh Khalsa on the board as a full voting member. (He had previously served as an ex-officio member.) Kartar Singh Khalsa was also the chief executive officer of Golden Temple, Inc.
The 2007 Operating Agreement of Golden Temple of Oregon LLC.5:
“All of KIIT’s outstanding stock is owned by Unto Infinity, LLC, an Oregon limited liability company. Unto Infinity, LLC is a disregarded entity for income tax purposes and is a division of Siri Singh Sahib Corporation, an Oregon nonprofit corporation …” ,
Although SSSC is the sole member of Unto Infinity, it can neither appoint nor dismiss board members of Unto Infinity (Unto Infinity’s board appoints and dismisses its own members), alter the operating agreement of Unto Infinity, or in any other respect control Unto Infinity. To the contrary, SSSC is limited to act subject to the approval of the Unto Infinity board. For all intents and purposes, Unto Infinity (and its subsidiary KIIT, which has the same board for the transactions relevant here, and which acted jointly with Unto Infinity, by simultaneous decisions of their synonymous boards) is self-governed by a board which is self-perpetuating and self-directed. It is the ultimate authority over Golden Temple and KIIT.
The board members are compensated by self-determined amounts drawn from the for-profit organizations. Primarily because of the success of Akal Security and Golden Temple, the funds available to Unto Infinity have increased sharply since the death of Yogi Bhajan. The compensation of the Unto Infinity managers has also increased (since 2005) to a level at all times in six figures, and as high as $185,000 per year. The board members of Unto Infinity/KIIT meet a handful of times a year, usually by telephone, but, on occasion, in person.
To summarize the identities of the organizations chiefly involved:
a) Khalsa International Industries and Trades Company, Inc. (KIIT), is a holding company organized under Nevada law, having no operations and created in order to receive and hold the shares in Golden Temple of Oregon, Inc., an operating company in the manufacture and distribution of foods in Eugene, Oregon; and Akal Security, Inc., a New Mexico security company which contracts with governmental agencies. KIIT is a wholly owned subsidiary of Unto Infinity.
b. Unto Infinity, LLC (Unto Infinity) is a nonprofit Oregon limited liability company organized to act as the administrative authority of the office of the religious leader of the movement established by Yogi Bhajan. Unto Infinity owns all shares of KITT and has the power and authority to appoint the boards of the religious corporations and nonprofits established by Yogi Bhajan.
c. Siri Sikh Sahib of Sikh Dharma (SSS of SD), is a California corporation sole, a religious corporation holding title to property held in the official capacity of the leader of a church or other religious body. With the death of Yogi Bhajan, SSS of SD was designed to dissolve and to transfer its assets to SSSC. (It has not done so, as a strategic move related to ongoing litigation with Bibiji regarding her claims as heir and widow of Yogi Bhajan)
c. Siri Singh Sahib Corporation (SSSC) is an Oregon religious corporation, organized to act as the successor legal organization to the SSS of SD, the California corporation sole, after the death of Yogi Bahjan and for religious, charitable and educational activities, and to act as “guardian of those assets of the SSS of SD which are conveyed to it, and Unto Infinity, LLC.” Restated Articles of Incorporation, Pl. Ex. 25. SSSC is the sole member of Unto Infinity, but with no authority over it.
SSSC has never had a board of directors and is governed by the Unto Infinity board as an “executive board.”
d. Sikh Dharma, Inc. (SDI) is a nonprofit religious corporation under the California Nonprofit Religious Corporation Law, of which the sole member is Unto Infinity, organized to advance the religion of Sikh Dharma and as an association of religious organizations teaching principles of Sikh Dharma, including by ordination of ministers of divinity and operation of places of worship. It has been active in the promotion of the religion, and its then-directors initiated the private plaintiff’s lawsuit before Unto Infinity exercised its authority to discharge all of them and replace them with directors who withrew SDI’s support of the lawsuit. It was then named as a nominal defendant because the private plaintiffs seek relief including payment of damages to it.
e. Golden Temple, Inc., is a for-profit, Oregon corporation in the food products industry with operations in Eugene, Oregon, and sales nationally. At relevant times, it has manufactured and distributed herbal teas and cereal products. All of the shares of Golden Temple, Inc., were passed (through intermediate steps explained below) through various religious institutions and by 2007 held by Unto Infinity's holding company, KIIT.
f. Akal Security, Inc. (Akal), is a for-profit New Mexico corporation in the business of providing security services to governmental entities. Akal was founded by a member of the Sikh Dharma community, one of the private plaintiffs, Gurutej Singh Khalsa, and he donated it to Sikh Dharma of New Mexico, Inc., (an affiliate of Sikh Dharma, Inc.) on Yogi Bhajan's assurances that Akal would be held to further Sikh Dharma. All Akal shares were transferred (as explained below) ultimately to KIIT.
The valuable assets controlled by Unto Infinity include other assets, such as real property. The complaint as originally framed by private plaintiffs attacked dealings by defendants as to all these assets; however, the controversy developed at trial focused on actions taken with respect to Golden Temple, Inc., and Golden Temple’s European affiliate, KIT-BV, a Netherlands corporation (KIT-BV). Continued at Link
I just received this e-mail from SDW with this spin on the judge's decision:
![[image]](images/uploaded/image315.jpg)
December 13, 2011
Dear Members of the Sadh Sangat,
Sat Nam and blessings to all. Today is a joyous day of victory for the Dharma! The Judge issued her Findings and Conclusions (the equivalent of a verdict in a jury trial), and ruled in our favor on all of our claims which were: Breach of Fiduciary Duty, Aiding and Abetting Breach of Fiduciary Duty and Unjust Enrichment. Her ruling is posted in its entirety on the SDW website in the Legal Documents Archive at: Judge's Findings and Conclusion.
Some notable conclusions from the Judge:
"I find established by clear and convincing evidence that a charitable trust existed and that the assets held by Unto Infinity and its subsidiary holding company, including Golden Temple, Inc. were assets held in trust. The trust was dedicated to support and advance the religious tenets and practices espoused by Yogi Bhajan in Sikh Dharma of the Western Hemisphere. Unto Infinity this controlled assets (whether through KIIT, as Unto Infinity's subsidiary and agent, or directly) impressed with a charitable trust."
"The court finds the express designation of SSSC and its subsidiary Unto Infinity as "guardian" of assets from SSS of SD expresses an intent that Unto Infinity hold the assets subject to a fiduciary duty to use the assets for the religious purposes of SSS of SD."
"Repeatedly, and at the instruction of (Roy) Lambert, members of the boards made statements crafted by Lambert to deny that any change in ownership had occurred and to conceal the true nature of the transaction."....."Not only were the public statements prepared by Lambert false, but they were intended by the board members who made the statements to mislead the Sikh Dharma community because the transaction - if fully disclosed- would inspire protest and likely litigation as a violation of trust obligations. All parties understood that the transaction could well constitute such a violation of the entrustment exclusively for religious and charitable purposes and this was the reason for the deception."
"The thorough-going violation by KIIT and Unto Infinity of fiduciary duties to the charitable trust through engaging in the disposition of Golden Temple, Inc, as they did, was proven beyond any doubt."
"Finally, strong, clear and convincing evidence establishes that Golden Temple, LLC, and all proceeds of its business, income, substitutes and assets, including those of KIT-BV, is the property that is impressed with the charitable trust private plaintiffs and the Attorney General seek to vindicate. These findings conclude the liability for unjust enrichment as against GTM and Kartar Singh Khalsa."
"To the extent that individual member managers received funds as a distribution of the proceeds of Golden Temple, therefore, they were unjustly enriched."
The court has requested the parties in the case to submit any additional briefing regarding remedies in light of the findings and conclusions within three weeks of the date of this opinion at which time she will have a hearing on remedies.
Blessings and deep gratitude to the Sangat for their prayers and continued support through this lengthy and challenging legal process. This is a wonderful victory for our Dharma. May we continue forward in unity and purity of consciousness to serve the mission of Sikh Dharma and the legacy of the Siri Singh Sahib (Yogi Bhajan).
Blessings to all,
SS Gurujot Kaur Khalsa
Secretary General
Sikh Dharma Worldwide
Now that Yogi Bhajan's Sikh Dharma Worldwide Organization has won their big lawsuit against Yogi Bhajan's Unto Infinity Board, will SDW continue their anti Sikh agenda?
Why does Yogi Bhajan's Sikh Dharma Worldwide Organization auction tantric necklaces, astrology and numerology readings to raise funds? It is forbidden in the Sikh Reht Maryada for Sikhs to practice: “Influence of stars, Magic spells, incantations, omens, auspicious times, days & occasions, , horoscopic dispositions,” Chapter X Article XVI.
I just read a letter from Hari Jiwan Singh Khalsa to Yogi Bhajan's "3HO family". Hari Jiwan(Sat Bachan Kaur who donated the tantric necklace above is his wife) was considered by Yogi Bhajan as his "right Hand man" and spent literally everyday of his life from 1978 until Yogi Bhajan's death in 2004 with his "Tantric Master". This letter from Hari Jiwan proves that Yogi Bhajan himself approved and promoted these anti Sikh tantric necklaces. "Guru Hans was the impetus behind the “Tantric Necklace.” He’s an architect by training and while looking through old architectural books, came across the ancient geometrical pattern used in this necklace since ancient times. The Siri Singh Sahib (Yogi Bhajan), who is the ‘Mahan Tantric’ (the Master of Tantric Yoga of which there is only one on the planet at a time), was so excited when this rediscovery was brought to him that he personally blessed each one, refined the process, and blessed Guru Hans Singh for his service."
Tantric necklace being auctioned to raise money for Yogi Bhajan's Sikh Dharma Worldwide Organization ![[image]](images/uploaded/image313.jpg)
Jewelry from Nine Treasures
Tantric Necklace
Description:
Pink Crystal (Fire-Polished) Tantric Necklace from Nine Treasures; Jivan Jewerly.
Donated By:
Nine Treasures; Jivan Jewelry: satbachan@ninetreasures.com or 505-747-2524
Here comes the hardball sales pitch from Hari Jiwan for the anti Sikh "individually blessed tantric necklaces by Yogi Bhajan" himself. This comes just one day after the soft sell letter I posted yesterday.
Just read the sacrilegious crap in Hari Jiwan's letter to Yogi Bhajan's "3HO family". Hari Jiwan(Sat Bachan Kaur who donated the tantric necklace above is his wife) was considered by Yogi Bhajan as his "right Hand man" and spent literally every day of his life from 1978 until Yogi Bhajan's death in 2004 with his "Mahan Tantric Master". This letter from Hari Jiwan proves that Yogi Bhajan himself approved and promoted these anti Sikh tantric necklaces. http://gurmukhyoga.com/forum/index.php?id=402
Hari Jiwan says,
Sat Nam Dear Family,
Blessings from snowy New Mexico. It has been one year since I started writing all of you and telling stories of my life as lived and learned at the feet of the Master (Yogi Bhajan). It has been truly an honor to share these memories with you and I have greatly appreciated all of your feedback. It’s been a further honor for me in reminding myself of how I’ve been blessed and the feeling of gratitude which follows.
As some of you know, I am a great believer in supporting all facets of our Dharma, our organization, which was created by the Siri Singh Sahib (Yogi Bhajan). Sikh Dharma Worldwide (SDW) is an entity that is near and dear to my heart and works tirelessly to maintain the essence of Yogi Bhajan's Teachings.
This winter SDW is holding an online Auction with unique, spiritual, one-of-a-kind items donated by our global Sangat. Items include custom artwork, jewelry, and passes to events such as Summer Solstice, Children’s Camp and Women’s Camp etc. etc. http://www.32auctions.com/organizations/2410/auctions/2772
If you are on the lookout for unique, conscious gifts for your friends and family, check out the many wonderful options that they have and help support SDW as well. If you have items you'd like to donate to the auction, please let them know.
I was happy to donate a Tantric Necklace to the auction and was trying to think of additional ways to help support SDW. I am therefore excited to extend this special offer to you, my friends and family. Please visit my website, www.jivanjewelry.com where you can choose from a many beautiful and powerful Tantric Necklaces. The Master has personally blessed all these necklaces individually. If you see something you like, enter code HARI2011 and receive 15% off your order. In addition, 15% of your purchase will also be donated to SDW.
We can all help the Siri Singh Sahib’s (Yogi Bhajan) legacy in believing in and donating for his and our Guru’s glory. And, here’s the best part, we begin to receive blessings right away in the form of a beautiful and powerful Tantric Necklace.
In Humility of Gratitude and Service,
MSS Hari Jiwan Singh Khalsa
Nine Treasures | 718 McCurdy Rd. | Espanola, NM 87532
"Mahan tantric", Yogi Bhajan and his wife Bibiji Inderjit Kaur Puri who promote a whole slew of anti-Sikh activities received Panth Rattan. Now Sikh scholars want to frame rules for the award after once again it shows to be politically driven
Panth Rattan has become a politically driven award particularly considering that previous recipients before the corrupt Prakash Singh Badal were the "Mahan tantric", Yogi Bhajan and his wife Bibiji Inderjit Kaur Puri who promote a whole slew of anti-Sikh activities.
After viewing these pictures of Bibiji performing Hindu pujas you'll see why she is clearly not a Gursikh & her positions of leadership in the Sikh community should be revoked! You'll notice the same Swami is leading the puja as the one at 11-11-11 shiv/shakti yoga event.
![[image]](images/uploaded/image290.jpg)
S.S. Gurubachan Singh at top left above Yogi Bhajan with orange turban. From left to right, Bibiji Inderjit Kaur Khalsa (Yogi Bhajan's wife), Bhai Sahib Satpal Singh Khalsa(Yogi Bhajan's son in law) and Kamaljit Kaur Khalsa (Yogi Bhajan's daughter) all wearing white turbans and donning the red mark of Shiva on their foreheads.
Sikhs do not perform these Hindu rituals which are strictly forbidden by the Sikh Reht Maryada. http://gurmukhyoga.com/forum/index.php?id=344
Let's make clear that Yogi Bhajan and Bibiji are not just lighting some candles and that this is in fact a Hindu puja in the pic above. This is the way a puja works. The devotee of shiva or whatever deity you are worshiping makes an offering to the god or goddess in return for a wish being granted. In this case it appears the offering was flower petals. Usually some kind of fire is involved to burn away or cleanse karmas from the devotee making the offering, in this case a candle is being used. Then the Hindu pundit or swami blesses the devotee with a red mark of paint on the forehead (the third eye in yogic tradition) which is commonly called the eye of Shiva. You can see in the photos that all these elements are being met for a Hindu puja.
![[image]](images/uploaded/image292.jpg)
Bibiji Inderjit Kaur Khalsa, PhD, holds the distinguished position of Bhai Sahiba or Chief Religious Minister of Sikh Dharma, and she was the wife of Siri Singh Sahib Bhai Sahib Harbhajan Singh Khalsa Yogiji for 52 years. To Sikhs around the globe, she is a revered "mother" and honored as an ambassador of good will and a harbinger of interfaith dialogue among religious leaders. In 2006 she was named the New Mexico Ambassador of Peace by Senator Shannon Robinson. Governor Bill Richardson appointed Bibiji as his Representative to India in 2007.
![[image]](images/uploaded/image293.jpg)
For Bibiji & Yogi Bhajan and now their students to indulge in Hindu practices, such as having a Homa (fire puja) ceremony in front of the Siri Guru Granth Sahib, to visit astrologers – as he did on a regular basis, to give people Sikh names through numerology rather than consult SGGS – I could go on and on – is totally hypocritical. Their disciples are now following in their footsteps.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=169369606419559&aid=42382
The 3HO people may do whatever Hindu practices they like; there is no law against it but they should not claim to be Khalsa or use Khalsa names, Singh and Kaur. For them to use the name Khalsa, when the overwhelming majority of them neither recites panj bani nor wear panj kaka, is hypocritical in the extreme. Of course this is really Yogi Bhajan’s fault for a really stupid decision to name all his students Singh/Kaur Khalsa, no matter what their level of commitment was to Sikhi. I believe this has deeply wounded the image of The Khalsa Panth in America.
Here is the condemnation of Idol Worship by Guru Gobind Singh Ji (extracts from various passages):
ਕਾਹੂ ਲੈ ਪਾਹਨ ਪੂਜ ਧਰਯੋ ਸਿਰ ਕਾਹੂ ਲੈ ਲਿੰਗ ਗਰੇ ਲਟਕਾਇਓ ॥
Someone worships stone and places it on his head. Someone hangs the phallus (lingam) from his neck. .(pg.42)
ਕੋਉ ਬੁਤਾਨ ਕੋ ਪੂਜਤ ਹੈ ਪਸੁ ਕੋਉ ਮ੍ਰਿਤਾਨ ਕੋ ਪੂਜਨ ਧਾਇਓ ॥
Some fools worship idols and some go to worship the dead. (pg.42)
ਪਾਇ ਪਰੋ ਪਰਮੇਸਰ ਕੇ ਜੜ ਪਾਹਨ ਮੈਂ ਪਰਮੇਸਰ ਨਾਹੀ ॥੯੯॥
O fool! Fall at the feet of Lord-God, The Lord is not within the stone-idols.99.(pg.111)
ਤੇ ਭੀ ਬਸਿ ਮਮਤਾ ਹੁਇ ਗਏ ॥ਪਰਮੇਸਰ ਪਾਹਨ ਠਹਿਰਏ ॥੧੩॥
THEY were also overpowered by ‘mineness’ and exhibited the Lord in statues. 13. .(pg.134)
ਪਾਹਨ ਪੁਜੈ ਹੈ ਏਕ ਨ ਧਿਐ ਹੈ ਮਤ ਕੇ ਅਧਕ ਅਧੇਰਾ ॥ਅੰਮ੍ਰਿਤ ਕਹੁ ਤਜਿ ਹੈ ਬਿਖ ਕਹੁ ਭਜਿ ਹੈ ਸਾਝਹਿ ਕਹਹਿ ਸਵੈਰਾ ॥
Worshiping stones, they will not meditate on the One Lord; there will be the prevalence of darkness of many sects; leaving the ambrosia they will desire for poison, and they will name the evening time as early-morning; .(pg.1142) (eg hindus and christians)
ਤਾਸ ਕਿਉ ਨ ਪਛਾਨਹੀ ਜੋ ਹੋਹਿ ਹੈ ਅਬ ਹੈ ॥ਨਿਹਫਲ ਕਾਹੇ ਭਜਤ ਪਾਹਨ ਤੋਹਿ ਕਛੁ ਫਲਿ ਦੈ ॥
Why do you not pray to him, who will be there in the future and who is here in the present? You are worshipping stones uselessly; what will you gain by this worship? (pg. 1289)
ਅੱਛਤ ਧੂਪ ਦੀਪ ਅਰਪਤ ਹੈ ਪਾਹਨ ਕਛੂ ਨ ਖੈ ਹੈ ॥
Yogi Bhajan and now his 3HO sect are clearly against Sikhism. It is not as simple as saying “So what we do some yoga…” Guess what? These Hindu pujas, kundalini and tantric yoga practices are anti- Gurmat! Always were and always will be. It is not their fault that Yogi Bhajan led them astray just look at the pics above where Yogi Bhajan is clearly performing Hindu puja and allowing his family to also induldge in this ceremony. Dr. Trilochan Singh’s book which is critical of Yogi Bhajan in the light of Sikhism has even more relevance today than it did 35 years ago when it was written.
http://gurmukhyoga.com/forum/index.php?mode=page&id=1
View these new videos by Yogi Bhajan chela Gurmukh Kaur for more evidence that 3HOers are openly promoting Un Sikh like practices of Hindu fire puja, idol worship and occult astrology! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWm53xo-xnY&feature=related
EVERY Sikh is representative of the Guru and the Khalsa Panth, especially one who is in the public eye. If they behave in a way that breaches SRM (Sikh Rehit Maryada) the whole Khalsa suffers.
"Jab lag Khalsa rahe niara. tab lag tej dio mai sara.
jab eh gahe bipran ki reet. mai na karo in ki parteet".
"So long as Khalsa retains his distinct identity, I will give him my entire radiance and strength. But if he should take on a non-Sikh way of life, then I shall have no confidence in him and withdraw my support and protection". Guru Gobind Singh Ji
EVERY Sikh is representative of the Guru and the Khalsa Panth, especially one who is in the public eye. If they behave in a way that breaches SRM (Sikh Rehit Maryada) the whole Khalsa suffers.
It is becoming more and more obvious that 3HO (whoever that actually is) has consciously or unconsciously decided to position itself as part Sikh and part Hindu. It seems to me that they just flat out don't understand just how this will wound taditional Sikh sentiments as the Punjabis find out that Yogi Bhajan's 3HO are doing this. Maybe they just don't care.
Snatam Kaur Khalsa openly admits to performing Hindu Arti at the Parmarth Niketan Ashram in Rishikesh in a letter published by Spirit Voyage,
"To finish the ceremony Swami ji invited me to sit behind him. I found myself next to Gurmukh. She leaned over and asked with knowing eyes... “Are you ok?” I said to her “Yes.” But as she turned away and I found my eyes falling on the rushing waters of the Ganga, a voice inside screamed... “No, I am not ok! I am in pain!"
Then Snatam Kaur goes on to describe the Ganges river as a goddess when she says, "The teaching tent for the 11.11.11 course is right next to the Ganga River. It is a very deep experience to take in Her(The Ganges river) loving presence while practicing the sacred science of Kundalini yoga, chanting together, and meditating."
![[image]](images/uploaded/image288.jpg)
Find the full photo album of Yogi Bhajan chelas anti Sikh Shiv/Shakti "Mother Ganga" event on Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa's facebook page and on this link:
![[image]](images/uploaded/image289.jpg)
This is the view of the idol of Shiva and the Ganges river from where Snatam Kaur and Gurmukh Kaur are performing the Hindu Arti and Puja in the first pic above.
Sikhs do not perform these Hindu rituals which are strictly forbidden by the Sikh Reht Maryada. http://gurmukhyoga.com/forum/index.php?id=344
EVERY Sikh is representative of the Guru and the Khalsa Panth, especially one who is in the public eye. If they behave in a way that breaches SRM (Sikh Rehit Maryada) the whole Khalsa suffers.
"Jab lag Khalsa rahe niara. tab lag tej dio mai sara.
jab eh gahe bipran ki reet. mai na karo in ki parteet".
"So long as Khalsa retains his distinct identity, I will give him my entire radiance and strength. But if he should take on a non-Sikh way of life, then I shall have no confidence in him and withdraw my support and protection". Guru Gobind Singh Ji
In this latest article published by SikhNet, SikhNet blatantly supports and promotes Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa and her anti Sikh activities!http://www.sikhnet.com/news/gurmukh-kaur-coming-edmonton
![[image]](images/uploaded/image273.jpg)
SikhNet needs to follow the Sikh Reht & stop promoting Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa who is used as a "Poster Yogi" by Parmarth Niketan Ashram. http://gurmukhyoga.com/forum/index.php?id=374
Just read this update on Gurmukh Kaur's facebook page. Please note the people who are commenting and her posts. There doesn't appear to be any Sikhs posting or anything about Sikhism but rather Gurmukh gives her chelas false hope in the Vedic "akashic records" and some "magical Aquarian Age" date of 11-11-11. I don't know why Gurmukh doesn't change her name to Shiva Dasi Devi; that would be more in keeping with her practices. http://www.facebook.com/GurmukhKaurKhalsa?sk=wall&filter=1Status
Update
By Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa
We are supposed to be in a period where all your thoughts can move all over the place into realms of what you are going towards in your destiny. After November 4, 2011, whatever you have wished for, envisioned for your destiny, what you want to achieve to fulfill your life, will be set in the akashic records for 29 years.
So take the time now to write down what it is you want to achieve, what is important for your happiness and your destiny, and project into the future for 29 years.
You can edit the list until next week on Friday.
Take the list home and put it into a holy book, or on their altar, under their prayer book, etc, to purify the wishes and visions. Rework them as you see fit.
You don't have to know all the details for your visions and wishes. Just the general concept.
Sat Nam
Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa, Santam Kaur & The Chardi Kalaa jatha are an embarrassment to the Khalsa panth. Gurmukh has been photographed doing Hinduhoma fire pujas and doesn't even wear a Sikh kara. Even in the pic above which SikhNet so blatently publishes shows Gurmukh Kaur doing homage to the sun in Rishikesh on the river Ganga where you can see a Hindu temple in the backgroud of the pic. How can Sikhnet support this anti Sikh woman?
http://gurmukhyoga.com/forum/index.php?id=307
I pray Gurmukh Kaur will visit the small Gurdwara on the banks of the Ganges at Haridwar, called Gian Gothdri, which marks Guru Nanak's visit there.
When Guru Nanak saw people doing puja to the sun, as is Gurmukh Kaur in this picture, he asked what they were doing. "We are giving water to our thirsty forefathers who live on the sun", they said. So, he also waded into the river and started doing likewise but facing in the opposite direction. Everybody laughed at him and said, "Don't you even know which way the sun is?" He replied, "I've been away from my farm in the Punjab for quite some time and my fields are probably parched, so I thought I should take this opportunity to water them (in the west)". They all laughed some more and said, "Silly fool, Punjab is hundreds of miles away and this water is just falling a foot away right in front of you." Guru Nanak replied, " Oh, but I thought the sun was much further away?" A few probably understood what Guru Nanak was getting at, and stopped doing that futile nonsense, but most, like Gurmukh Kaur, carried on still blissfully ignorant.
"Jab lag Khalsa rahe niara. tab lag tej dio mai sara.
jab eh gahe bipran ki reet. mai na karo in ki parteet".
"So long as Khalsa retains his distinct identity, I will give him my entire radiance and strength. But if he should take on a non-Sikh way of life, then I shall have no confidence in him and withdraw my support and protection". Guru Gobind Singh Ji
EVERY Sikh is representative of the Guru and the Khalsa Panth, especially one who is in the public eye. If they behave in a way that breaches SRM (Sikh Rehit Maryada) the whole Khalsa suffers.
Let us look at Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa's name, the one whom SikhNet & 3HO so blithely dismiss as "a popular Yogini". Her first name is Gurmukh. Forget the nonsensical Yogi Bhajan translation; Gurmukh is a very powerful word from Gurbani, meaning that person whose face is forever turned towards the Guru. And that means Guru Nanak and his successors, not some Hindu Swami the demigod Shiva or the Mother Ganga river. Sometimes in Gurbani, Gurmukh refers to Guru Sahib himself.
How can a Gurmukh be doing Hindu puja?
Second name is Kaur, meaning a princess of the khalsa. The last name is Khalsa. Anyone who calls themselves Khalsa MUST live as a reflection of Guru Gobind Singh ji and his rehit. Otherwise they should call themselves something else.
She can do as much Hindu puja as she likes but she should spare the Khalsa the embarrassment of having to see it plastered all over the internet. It is absolutely against SRM and is very insulting to the Khalsa and indeed to all Sikhs, especially those whose relatives were slaughtered and raped by Hindus in 1984.
I don't know why she doesn't change her name to Shiva Dasi Devi; that would be more in keeping with her practices.
This is a response to a 3HOers comment in the Sikhism discussion group on facebook. Sarib Khalsa says: "Hey, what do you care how someone else wants to live their life? Her life is her life, not yours, you horses ass. And since when are "Singh" and "Kaur" not part of "Hindu" tradition? Where do you think they came from?
Whether you like it or not there is a huge cultural overlap with many aspects of "Hindu" culture and traditions. We used to not be separated or threatened by this. Overlaps existed without negating Sikh ideals or philosophy. British political interests wanted a wide, dark line demarcating the two. They wanted a loyal, neutered, anglicized, even christianized Sikhism, separate from and not aligned with the interests of "Hindus." They mostly got that. There are political interests today that want to interfere in similar ways, they come down from the same intelligence service lineage, those are the guys paying you.
And in case you didn't know, there ARE writings of "Hindu" saints in Guru Granth Sahib. Go bang your head against another wall."
Gursant Singh's reply: What is most shocking to me is your total lack of understanding or even caring about the sensibilities of most Sikhs from Punjab. While it is true that, in India, Sikhs and Hindus live side by side, amicably and peaceably, most Sikhs that I know are all too well aware of how the Central (Hindu) government has treated the Sikhs, especially those in the Punjab, in a terrible fashion ever since Indian independence.
If you need to know more, read the article here.
Two of my favorite Sikh writers teamed up together to write this article:
http://www.sikhnn.com/views/august-15-india%E2%80%99s-shackles-old-and-new?page=2
August 15: India’s Shackles, Old and New
It is becoming more and more obvious that 3HO (whoever that actually is) has consciously or unconsciously decided to position itself as part Sikh and part Hindu. It seems to me that they just flat out don't understand just how this will wound taditional Sikh sentiments as the Punjabis find out that Yogi Bhajan's 3HO are doing this. Maybe they just don't care.
I would be curious to find out who is feeding you this stuff about it all being the fault of the British that the Sikhs and Hindus are separate. I feel sure that you don't have that knowledge by your own research; it's clearly being spoon fed to you.
I don't think I need to reiterate about SRM and the teachings of the Guru Sahiban, I have posted all that here so many times already.
I have to say that I feel saddened by your childish arrogance and by the path that the Bhajanistas have chosen. As some are always posting here, they certainly have a right to worship in whatever way they want. But this creeping Hinduism is an insult to all those who died and suffered to preserve the separate identity of Sikhi that was given by Guru Nanak and solidified by Guru Gobind Singh.
Bulletin from the cause: Call to Truth and Authentic Sikhism
Go to Cause:
http://www.causes.com/causes/518356-call-to-truth-and-authentic-sikhism
Posted By: Gursant Singh
To: Members in Call to Truth and Authentic Sikhism
Hindu Homa (fire puja) ceremony performed by 3HOer Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa in Rishikesh! Stop these enemies of Sikhism! Write Sikhnet and Gurumustak Singh(Mr. Sikhnet) and insist they write an article denouncing these fake Sikh idol worshipers.
http://www.facebook.com/sikhnet
http://www.facebook.com/mrsikhnet
For Yogi Bhajan and now his students to indulge in Hindu practices, such as having a Homa (fire puja) ceremony in front of the Siri Guru Granth Sahib, to visit astrologers – as he did on a regular basis, to give people Sikh names through numerology rather than consult SGGS – I could go on and on – is totally hypocritical. His disciples are now following in his footsteps.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=169369606419559&aid=42382
The 3HO people may do whatever Hindu practices they like; there is no law against it but hey should not claim to be Khalsa or use Khalsa names, Singh and Kaur. For them to use the name Khalsa, when the overwhelming majority of them neither recites panj bani nor wear panj kaka, is hypocritical in the extreme. Of course this is really Yogi Bhajan’s fault for a really stupid decision to name all his students Singh/Kaur Khalsa, no matter what their level of commitment was to Sikhi. I believe this has deeply wounded the image of The Khalsa Panth in America.
Yogi Bhajan and now his 3HO sect are clearly against Sikhism. It is not as simple as saying “So what we do some yoga…” Guess what? These kundalini and tantric yoga practices are anti- Gurmat! Always were and always will be. It is not their fault that Yogi Bhajan led them astray. Dr. Trilochan Singh’s book which is critical of Yogi Bhajan in the light of Sikhism has even more relevance today than it did 35 years ago when it was written.
http://gurmukhyoga.com/forum/index.php?mode=page&id=1
![[image]](images/uploaded/image180.jpg)
"Jab lag Khalsa rahe niara. tab lag tej dio mai sara.
jab eh gahe bipran ki reet. mai na karo in ki parteet".
"So long as Khalsa retains his distinct identity, I will give him my entire radiance and strength. But if he should take on a non-Sikh way of life, then I shall have no confidence in him and withdraw my support and protection". Guru Gobind Singh Ji
EVERY Sikh is representative of the Guru and the Khalsa Panth, especially one who is in the public eye. If they behave in a way that breaches SRM (Sikh Rehit Maryada) the whole Khalsa suffers.
Let us look at Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa's name, the one whom 3HO so blithely dismiss as "a popular Yogini". Her first name is Gurmukh. Forget the nonsensical YB translation; Gurmukh is a very powerful word from Gurbani, meaning that person whose face is forever turned towards the Guru. And that means Guru Nanak and his successors, not some Hindu Swami or the demigod Shiva. Sometimes in Gurbani, Gurmukh refers to Guru Sahib himself.
How can a Gurmukh be doing Hindu puja?
Second name is Kaur, meaning a princess of the khalsa. The last name is Khalsa. Anyone who calls themselves Khalsa MUST live as a reflection of Guru Gobind Singh ji and his rehit. Otherwise they should call themselves something else.
She can do as much Hindu puja as she likes but she should spare the Khalsa the embarrassment of having to see it plastered all over the internet. It is absolutely against SRM and is very insulting to the Khalsa and indeed to all Sikhs, especially those whose relatives were slaughtered and raped by Hindus in 1984.
I don't know why she doesn't change her name to Shiva Dasi Devi; that would be more in keeping with her practices.
![[image]](images/uploaded/image187.jpg)
http://media.causes.com/1048229?s=cause
Bulletin from the cause: Call to Truth and Authentic Sikhism
Go to Cause:
http://www.causes.com/causes/518356-call-to-truth-and-authentic-sikhism
Posted By: Gursant Singh
To: Members in Call to Truth and Authentic Sikhism
Hindu Homa (fire puja) ceremony performed by 3HOer Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa in Rishikesh! Stop these enemies of Sikhism! Write Sikhnet and Gurumustak Singh(Mr. Sikhnet) and insist they write an article denouncing these fake Sikh idol worshipers.
http://www.facebook.com/sikhnet
http://www.facebook.com/mrsikhnet
![[image]](images/uploaded/image206.jpg)
For Yogi Bhajan and now his students to indulge in Hindu practices, such as having a Homa (fire puja) ceremony in front of the Siri Guru Granth Sahib, to visit astrologers – as he did on a regular basis, to give people Sikh names through numerology rather than consult SGGS – I could go on and on – is totally hypocritical. His disciples are now following in his footsteps.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=169369606
Yogi battle brews on: Reply to comment from Daya Singh Khalsa, President of Yogi Bhajan's Akal Security
by Gursant Singh , Yuba City California USA, Saturday, December 31, 2011, 14:32 (4716 days ago) @ Gursant Singh
edited by Gursant Singh, Thursday, January 12, 2012, 15:54
Daya Singh, President of Yogi Bhajan's Akal Security says in a comment to the article in the New Mexican: "A community founded and guided by Yogi Bhajan for over 30 years sits 20 miles from Mr. Sharpe’s office. Of course, he attempted to contact no one there"
I sent a letter to Daya on 12/6/2009 in which I told him that as a member of the Yogi Bhajan community for 30 years, I had serious questions concerning Yogi Bhajan's un Sikh like practices. I told Daya that I wanted his in depth commentary on the book “Sikhism and Tantric Yoga” Written by Dr. Trilochan Singh which takes a critical look at Yogi Bhajan and his tantric / Kundalini yoga systems. I was just introduced to “Sikhism and Tantric Yoga” on a recent trip to Amritsar India and the truths revealed were a real eye opener for me, So I asked Daya whether the facts and history of 3-HO and Yogi Bhajan described in the book were correct since he had a great deal of experience with the Yogi Bhajan community since the 1970’s. Daya's response was as follows and I might add was the last contact he ever made with me after my being a part of the Espanola Yogi Bhajan community for 16 years.
From:
daya@akalsecurity.com
Sent:
Mon 12/07/09 6:18 PM
To:
Guru Sant Singh Khalsa (gurusant@hotmail.com)
thanks.... I wish you well
Daya Singh Khalsa, President
Akal Security, Inc.
505-692-6622
“thanks.... I wish you well”
That’s it? Where were Daya Singh's comments when I “attempted to contact” him after returning from India in 2009? It seems Daya is only interested in covering himself and keeping up an image with the press and public. As President of Akal Security, Daya didn’t have time to sit down and seriously discuss with one of those community members the “community founded and guided by Yogi Bhajan for over 30 years”.
Yogi Bhajan's Akal Security Forced Pregnant Women From Their Jobs!
KANSAS CITY – Akal Security, Inc., the largest provider of contract security services to the federal government, will pay $1.62 million to a class of 26 female security guards, settling a pregnancy discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency announced today.
According to the EEOC, in 2004 New Mexico-based Akal began a nationwide pattern and practice of forcing its pregnant employees, working as contract security guards on U.S. Army bases, to take leave and discharging them because of pregnancy. The women worked at Fort Riley, Hood, Stewart, Campbell, Lewis, Anniston, Sunny Point and Blue Grass Army Depot. Akal also subjected the women to less favorable terms and conditions of employment because of pregnancy, including preventing them from completing their annual physical agility and firearms tests or forcing them to take such tests before their certifications had expired. Akal also retaliated against an employee who complained about the discrimination by filing baseless criminal charges against her, the EEOC said.
Such alleged conduct violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended by the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, which prohibits gender discrimination in employment, including pregnancy discrimination. The EEOC filed suit against Akal in 2008 in U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas ( U.S. EEOC v. Akal Security, Inc., Case No. 08-1274-JTM-KMH) after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation process. Eleven of the class members were also individually represented by Forrest Rhodes and Don Berner of Foulston Siefkin, LLP, Wichita, Kan. According to its website, www.akalsecurity.com, Akal is one of the largest contract security companies in the United States and operates in 40 states and 20 countries.
“This is a very important settlement that will help protect an entire class of women from discrimination on account of pregnancy,” said EEOC Chair Jacqueline A. Berrien. “This agreement reinforces the EEOC’s commitment to securing fair and equal treatment for all women in the work place.”
In addition to the monetary relief, the two-year consent decree settling the suit requires Akal to:
Report to the EEOC about any employees who are required to take a leave of absence while pregnant, are terminated while pregnant, or make a complaint of pregnancy discrimination;
Report to the EEOC about any physical agility test it intends to implement to screen or requalify employees and whether pregnant employees are permitted to take the test;
Issue a message from its CEO to all employees along with a well-defined, comprehensive anti-discrimination policy; and
Provide annual compliance training to managers and supervisors on the requirements of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act.
“Akal operated its business without regard to federal law,” said Barbara Seely, regional
attorney for the EEOC’s St. Louis District Office, whose jurisdiction includes Kansas. “Employees who become pregnant and can continue to perform their jobs should not be pushed out of traditionally male jobs just because they don’t fit the employer’s image. We are confident Akal now understands the price of allowing this type of illegal stereotyping to drive employment decisions, and that it will ensure pregnant employees are treated fairly going forward.”
The EEOC enforces federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. Further information about the EEOC is available on its web site at www.eeoc.gov.
"No one at Akal Security could be reached for comment on this story. According to the New Mexico company's website, 'Akal is the largest provider of contract Judicial Security Services, protecting federal courthouses in 40 states.'"
A poster in the comment section wonders if Akal shouldn't at least pony up for the guard's funeral costs.
http://www.sfreporter.com/santafe/article-5502-khalsa-vs-khalsa.html?current_page=1Check the site for photos:
Khalsa vs Khalsa
![[image]](images/uploaded/image164.jpg)
A simmering lawsuit coiuld decide the fate of a $1 billion Sikh empire
By Corey Pein
The young woman locked the door to her office. In the hall, a man was shouting. He began pounding on her door.
She knew who it was, and she knew what he wanted. He wanted the keys.
The siege on the second floor was the most dramatic moment of a coup, years in the making, that went down seven months ago in dusty Española.
The modesty of the setting belies the stakes: control of a large private army that has won more than $3.5 billion in government contracts, ownership of a trans-Atlantic natural foods empire and, not least, the fate of an influential decades-old religious sect called Sikh Dharma.
The sect’s founder, the late Yogi Bhajan, inspired thousands of mostly white, middle-class men and women to stop cutting their hair, put on turbans and adopt a common surname: Khalsa.
Bhajan died in 2004. Soon after, his inner circle began to splinter. The disputes were quiet at first. By Dec. 3, 2009, the divided loyalties could no longer be ignored.
It was on that day that Guru Kirin Kaur learned that she and her colleagues had been given an ultimatum. Over 14 years—most of her adult life—Kirin had worked her way up to become chief financial officer of Sikh Dharma International, the sect’s religious nonprofit organization; now she, her coworkers, her boss and the SDI board could either sign a new loyalty oath, or find new jobs.
The demand came from Guruchander Singh, the sect’s chief numerologist and manager of the administrative nonprofit, Sikh Dharma Stewardship.
Kirin parked her car outside a long, white building at Sikh Dharma’s picturesque Española campus. There in the gravel parking lot, she claims, she met Guruchander.
“He started to verbally assault me, accusing me of stealing and yelling that I would be going to jail,” she writes in an email posted to an online Sikh forum.
“He was extremely hostile, escalating into a violent rage, and frankly, very scary.”
![[image]](images/uploaded/image165.jpg)
Sikh Dharma’s leading numerologist, Guruchander Singh, serves on the New Mexico Board of Chiropractic Examiners.
When another employee tried to call the police, Guruchander allegedly said, “Hang up if you want to keep your job.”
Kirin claims Guruchander followed her upstairs, where she locked herself in her office. “The next thing I knew he was kicking at my door so hard the building shook,” she writes.
Hearing her colleagues enter the hall, Kirin opened her door. Guruchander then barged inside, she claims, making off with computers full of confidential information. Later, she claims, he used her Social Security number to convince a Santa Fe Wells Fargo employee to put SDI’s bank accounts under his control. Then, he allegedly tried to have the locks changed.
A legal complaint filed later says Guruchander, who also co-directs the Yoga Santa Fe studio on Llano Street and serves on the state Board of Chiropractic Examiners, “behaved in a manner that was more akin to a violent criminal than a supposedly peaceful Sikh.”
Sikh Dharma’s leading numerologist, Guruchander Singh, serves on the New Mexico Board of Chiropractic Examiners.
Kirin, Guruchander and others in the office that day either ignored SFR’s messages or declined comment for this story. “I have no response as the legal case is still pending,” Guruchander writes in an email to SFR.
Indeed, the action has moved to a courtroom 1,300 miles away, in Portland, Ore. A judge there will decide who should control the late Bhajan’s business empire, including the omnipresent Yogi tea brand and what may be New Mexico’s largest private company, Akal Security.
Will control remain with the coup leaders—the Sikh Dharma Stewardship and its parent company, Unto Infinity of Oregon—whom Bhajan left in charge of the sect’s business side?
Or will it go to the former SDI board, which includes Bhajan’s widow and others entrusted with religious matters?
Neither side can claim total purity. Some leaders of the former group have renounced key tenets of Sikh Dharma, cut their hair and allegedly raised their own salaries. A few in the latter group are connected to long-standing charges of impropriety and mismanagement.
Yet the stereotype of the bully in a business suit creates some sympathy for the religious leaders, even among those reluctant to take sides.
“I almost feel sorry for the religious heads in Española,” Kamalla Rose Kaur, who runs an online forum for other ex-followers of what she calls the “Yogi Bhajan cult,” tells SFR. “They’re really the underdogs, at the moment.”
Lucky for them, long odds are nothing new to the followers of Sikh Dharma.
Page 2 Santa fe reporter
Khalsa Vs Khalsa
The future Yogi Bhajan had what The Times of India calls a “fairly privileged childhood.” He was born Harbhajan Singh Puri in 1929 in a part of British India that is now Pakistan. After college, he spent 15 years working as a customs official.
In 1968, he moved to North America. Long before Walmart began selling $20 yoga mats, Bhajan introduced Americans to the Hindu practice of Kundalini yoga, blended with his own take on Sikhism, a 500-year-old religion with some 26 million followers, most of whom live in the Punjab region. Hippies loved it.
Bhajan called his new community 3HO—the healthy, happy, holy organization—and selected a remote headquarters: Española.
“Yogi Bhajan used to say, ‘God lives everywhere, but his address is in New Mexico,’” Avtar Hari Singh, a former Hollywood executive who joined Sikh Dharma 17 years ago, tells SFR.
From the outset of his American adventures, Bhajan cultivated powerful connections. Among the earliest 3HO devotees were the wife and two daughters of James Angleton, the late Central Intelligence Agency deputy director who inspired the 2006 Matt Damon spy flick, The Good Shepherd. One daughter, Siri Hari Kaur Angleton-Khalsa, showed off her stunning home, garden and pool north of Santa Fe to Architectural Digest last year.
Early on, Bhajan “had his share of spooked critics—‘Bogi Yogi,’ some folks called him—and there were the usual charges of cronyism, moral turpitude, etc,” the Times of India writes in his obituary. “But it was his business enterprise, as much as his religious teaching, that was striking.”
Indeed, financial success—and Bhajan’s alliances with powerful politicians and Hollywood celebrities—helped the community gain the acceptance of its neighbors. Like the prosperity gospel of some Christian megachurches, Sikh Dharma praises the cultivation of wealth.
Bhajan also embraced Sikhism’s martial tradition.
“As opposed to the philosophy of ‘turn the other cheek’—not to denigrate that—it is the philosophy of protecting those who can’t protect themselves,” Avtar Hari says.
And so the private security business, which combines steady income with paramilitary discipline, was a natural choice to sustain the community.
Bhajan’s followers established Akal Security in 1980. One founder, Gurutej Singh, was famously booted by the New Mexico State Police for refusing to doff his turban and shave.
“Yogi Bhajan told him, ‘Why don’t you start a security company, and they’ll work for you,’” Avtar Hari recalls.
In time, that’s pretty much what happened—but success wouldn’t come easy.
The 1980s were not a great time to be Sikh.
In June, 1984, the Indian Army raided the religion’s most sacred site, the Golden Temple in Amritsar, India, in search of a separatist leader.
Weeks after the siege of the temple, Bhajan summoned members of the Sikh diaspora to join him in Española “to formulate a joint program of action,” The New York Times reported; Indian Sikhs who had long disparaged Bhajan and 3HO Sikhism accepted the invitation.
Four months later, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was murdered by her Sikh bodyguards. Bhajan condemned the murder. The ensuing riots left thousands of Sikhs dead. In 1985, the Federal Bureau of Investigation announced that it had foiled another alleged “Sikh terrorist” plot to assassinate Gandhi’s son on US soil.
Today, India’s prime minister is himself Sikh, but it took decades for the religion to shed the “terrorist” label, which was once thrown as casually toward Sikhs as it is now toward Muslims. (For what it’s worth, Avtar Hari says Sikhs are more like Jews, resented for their success.)
Yogi Bhajan, who inaugurated an annual “Peace Prayer Day” in 1986, was never publicly linked to any criminality during this period—with one strange exception.
In 1988, the Drug Enforcement Administration indicted a Bhajan deputy based in Virginia, named Gurujot Singh. Agents charged that he had tried to smuggle some 20 tons of marijuana into the US from Thailand via ship. He also had allegedly asked an informant for help obtaining illegal weapons, including pistols with silencers, automatic rifles, grenade launchers and a 50-caliber machine gun.
According to The Los Angeles Times, he entered a plea that “admitted no guilt, but acknowledged the prosecution could likely prove its case.” Federal Bureau of Prisons records confirm Gurujot Singh Khalsa—previously known as Robert A Taylor, and not to be confused with a younger man with a similar name in Española—was incarcerated for an unknown time, and released.
Akal co-founder Gurutej Singh Khalsa is a plaintiff in the lawsuit, but declined to speak for this article.
SFR reached Gurujot twice on his cell phone; both times, he said he was driving and to call back later. SFR called at the suggested time, but Gurujot did not return the message.
In a lengthy recent interview with an Indian journalist, Gurujot casts the 1988 indictment as police entrapment. Gurujot claims police placed an informant in his temple, and covertly recorded the informant’s idea to smuggle drugs, which he flatly rejected.
In the same interview, Gurujot blames “white supremacists” for having posted the “false” indictment online in an effort to undermine his businesses. The interviewer, Khushwant Singh, writes that “since Gurujot was part of Akal Security” at the time, the company’s enemies hoped to tar it by association.
After Akal won an airport security contract in Hawaii in 1999, someone sent anonymous letters to state officials, evidently alluding to Gurujot’s indictment. An Akal spokesperson told the Honolulu Star-Bulletin “the confusion stems from a 10-year-old drug arrest on the East Coast of someone who bears the same last name”—Khalsa—but has “no relationship to our company or religion.”
Despite that disavowal, other Sikh Dharma organizations that are supported by Akal still embrace Gurujot. Today, he teaches 3HO-approved Kundalini yoga in Virginia, where he makes a living running outsourcing and call center businesses with operations in Pakistan and South Africa. He also served as board president of the 3HO Foundation of Washington, DC, at the time of Yogi Bhajan’s death, the most recently available federal tax records show.
The revelation of the charges against Gurujot and other sensational accusations led to the sect’s first exodus of members in the mid-1990s, according to Kamalla Rose, an ex-3HO follower who now lives in Washington state. Today’s split in Sikh Dharma harks back to that time, she says, in that the newly empowered business-side leaders “are trying to cut out the crooks and the bad wood.”
Within the past few years, Gurujot has publicly signed himself as “secretary in chief” of Sikh Dharma International, but the organization’s lawyer tell SFR he was not on the board as of last year’s coup.
In any case, Gurujot was among the first to sign an online petition supporting its ousted board members in Española, and against the Sikh Dharma business leaders who took control of SDI and Akal Security.
The new millenium brought another wave of discrimination against people wearing long beards and turbans.
America’s bigots may have frequently confused Sikh cab drivers for Al Qaeda sympathizers, but the US government was more discerning. Indeed, the worst terrorist attacks in US history turned out to be great for Sikh Dharma’s flagship business.
Two weeks after the 9.11 attacks, Akal co-founder and President Daya Singh Khalsa met George W Bush at the White House to discuss new airport security measures, as well as anti-Sikh discrimination.
Today, Akal’s best customers are the departments of Defense and Homeland Security. According to a federal contracts website, Akal and its subsidiary Coastal International Security have received at least $3.5 billion in federal awards since 2000.
Akal’s charges include federal courthouses, military bases and US embassies abroad. On top of that, Akal profits from untallied millions in contracts with state and local governments across the country.
Akal co-founder and President Daya Singh refuses to disclose numbers. “We take advantage of our privately held status,” he tells SFR.
Estimates vary, but Avtar Hari says Akal has $500 million in annual revenues and approximately 15,000 employees.
The company boasts reams of client testimonials and awards. But, as might be expected for so large an enterprise, Akal’s record also has some blotches.
In 2003, Akal won the “access control” contract for Fort Hood, Texas, after the Pentagon began deploying the National Guard to Afghanistan and Iraq. Akal lost the contract four years later, having paid $18 million to settle a federal lawsuit that claimed the company had failed to hire enough properly trained guards.
(In a sense, Akal lucked out by losing the Fort Hood contract before the shooting massacre on base last year.)
In 2007, the City of Phoenix fined Akal for repeated contract violations, including airport guards sleeping on the job. And in 2009, guards at the federal courthouse in San Francisco sued Akal for retaliation after they complained about coworkers being drunk and high on duty and, in one case, waving a gun around.
Obviously, the Sikh Dharma company isn’t responsible for the more controversial policies of its biggest client, the federal government, but it has proved happy to carry them out.
For instance, Akal guards illegal immigrants on government-chartered flights from Tucson, Ariz., to Mexico City, working under the deportation contractor, CSI Aviation Services of Albuquerque.
CSI was founded by former New Mexico Republican Party Chairman Allen Weh. This year, Akal gave Weh $2,000 for his failed gubernatorial campaign.
Such generosity toward politicians surely aided the company’s rise from a small, local outfit whose contracts once specified “Sikh guards only,” to one of the biggest players in private security, in league with Wackenhut and Blackwater.
In New Mexico, the company’s best allies are Democrats. It has given thousands to the gubernatorial bid of Lt. Gov. Diane Denish. Attorney General Gary King, who runs the state’s key investigative office, also has benefited.
Akal has been one of Gov. Bill Richardson’s biggest donors, kicking $46,000 to his political committees over the years. A handful of other Sikh entrepreneurs and businesses, including Golden Temple of Oregon, have contributed another $23,000.
Richardson appointed Akal co-founder Gurutej Singh to the Private Investigations Advisory Board, which regulates security companies.
When Bhajan died, Richardson ordered state flags flown at half-staff. Later, the governor visited Española to dedicate Yogi Bhajan Memorial Highway. It intersects Interstate 285 at the Trans-Lux Dreamcatcher Cinema and winds eastward, past the golden dome of the Sikh Dharma temple.
When SFR visited in late June, the placid green campus of Sikh Dharma was deserted. Most of the 200-some Sikh families who live in the area were miles away in the hills, celebrating the summer solstice.
SFR came at the invitation of Avtar Hari, a genial, scholarly type who abandoned an entertainment and real estate career to follow another path.
“No one is more surprised than I am when I look in the mirror,” he says. “I have a lot of three-piece suits in the closet.”
Former SDI Board Chairman Avtar Hari Singh is the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit to regain control of the organization.
As it is, his attire consists of a white robe and turban, only shades brighter than his long white beard.
Years ago, as Arthur Warshaw, he was president of Time-Life Television. As Avtar Hari, he put his Harvard Business School degree to use as board chairman of Sikh Dharma International—until Dec. 3, 2009, when he was stripped of the title.
He provides a tour of the temple, which features a striking mural of the Virgen de Guadalupe sandwiched between two meditating gurus.
Outside, as monsoon clouds gather, Avtar Hari points across the grassy lawn to the headquarters of Akal Security. It seems odd that the squat, prefab-looking structure a stone’s throw from the temple houses a half-billion-dollar company that employs a number of people with high-level security clearances.
But then, Akal rarely seeks to draw attention to itself or its religious origins. Golden Temple, the food company in Oregon, takes a different tack, printing yoga poses and religious sayings on boxes of Yogi tea. (In 2008, the Sikh Dharma business leaders in Oregon removed Yogi Bhajan’s picture from
the packaging.)
With no outside equity investment, Avtar Hari says, these two companies grew to have a combined annual revenue of $800 million. And the profits have allowed Sikh Dharma to sustain its membership and spread the word.
Yogi Bhajan always intended that “these companies would provide jobs for our children and anyone else who wanted to work in a conscious business,” Avtar Hari says.
Most Akal employees are not Sikh, but some children of Sikh Dharma will find work in the Khalsa family business. In a video posted online, Akal co-founder Gurutej Singh leads dozens of youths in a tug-of-war type challenge at Camp Miri Piri, Sikh Dharma’s youth academy in India.
Some fear the leaders of the coup will sell off the training camp, as they did the cereal division of Golden Temple earlier this year.
The lawsuit in Portland—whose key plaintiffs include Akal’s Gurutej and Avtar Hari of SDI—seeks to prevent further “deterioration” of the Sikh Dharma organization. Until the case is resolved, Multnomah County Circuit Judge Leslie Roberts has barred the business leaders in Oregon from selling off Akal.
In a nutshell, the religious leaders want to recover damages and remove the business-side leaders from their positions of power.
The plaintiffs claim the business leaders have abandoned Sikhism and taken to living in high style, while depriving SDI—and by extension its beneficiaries in the community—of some $50 million in property, stock and monetary donations. Worse still, the plaintiffs say, the business leaders fired 25 Sikh Dharma nonprofit employees and, beginning last summer, tried to push Bhajan’s widow, Bibiji Inderjit Kaur Puri, out of her lifetime appointment to the SDI board.
Each year, Akal and Golden Temple donate millions, perhaps tens of millions, of dollars to the bevy of nonprofits inspired by Yogi Bhajan. The nonprofits include the 3HO Foundation, which stages festivals and other events; the Kundalini Research Institute; and SDI, the authority on matters of doctrine.
In 2003, aware that Bhajan’s long illness might soon claim his life, he and his advisers began planning for the future of Sikh Dharma. In so doing, they established a new set of organizations with interlocking relationships.
A chart included with the Portland lawsuit lays out this corporate structure. Near the top is Unto Infinity LLC, a for-profit Oregon company. Unto Infinity ultimately owns both Akal Security of New Mexico and a portion of Golden Temple in Oregon.
Unto Infinity also controls the nonprofit Sikh Dharma Stewardship, run by the numerologist Guruchander Singh, and by extension SDI, which he allegedly “stormed” last December. (The SDS website says it replaced SDI’s board due to poor financial reporting and unspecified conflict-of-interest concerns; the Portland lawsuit was first filed nine weeks before the December incident, and followed many months of escalating tensions.)
Advised by his longtime secretary, Sopurkh Kaur, Bhajan signed off on this structure, which left the business and administrative leaders of Sikh Dharma in a position superior to that of the religious leaders.
Sopurkh is a defendant in the lawsuit. The lead defendants, however, are Kartar Singh and Preaim Kaur, both directors of Unto Infinity. Kartar and Preaim now live in Oregon and are a romantic couple, according to multiple sources.
The plaintiffs allege that these defendants “formulated a plan to renounce the faith and their orthodox practices before they obtained these positions of power.”
Whatever their motivation, top Unto Infinity leaders today bear little relation to their old, turbaned selves; photos from recent fundraisers in Portland show a beardless Kartar and a dancing Preaim.
Kartar, a Golden Temple executive, has allegedly increased his pay from $127,000 to $800,000 a year.
No one claims Yogi Bhajan was less than lucid when he approved the new corporate structure. But did he expect all this discord?
“I believe he wanted to see all the organizations flourish and continue in the way they did when he was alive,” Avtar Hari says.
The defendants’ attorney, Gary Roberts, did not return SFR’s call. In an interview with the Eugene, Ore., Register-Guard, which has covered the case closely, Roberts suggests Avtar Hari, Gurutej and the other plaintiffs are merely jealous that Bhajan didn’t leave them in charge.
The defendants say they have followed Bhajan’s wishes, and are within their rights to lay off anyone they please. In a court filing, the business side’s lawyers liken the plaintiffs to Girl Scouts and their complaint to the following:
“The Girl Scouts have reduced funding at the same time that they increased their officers’ salaries. So I want to sue the directors of the National Girl Scouts for damages, overturn all of their decisions, remove all of their directors and have new directors chosen by people I like.”
Bhajan’s widow, Bibiji, did not respond to SFR’s email. A lawsuit she filed against Golden Temple in federal court to recover royalties lost following the removal of Yogi Bhajan’s image from Yogi tea boxes was dismissed on June 9 when a judge said the parties should enter arbitration.
The late yogi’s son-in-law, Bhai Sahib Satpal Singh, tells SFR in an email that he isn’t taking sides.
“I am praying that good sense may prevail on both sides and the situation is settled amicably,” he writes. “I have suggested to all sides that if they are unable to come to a resolution, rather than go [through] the courts, they must first try to involve the Supreme Sikh leadership from India as mediators.”
Stating the obvious, he writes that “lawsuits and disputes will certainly have a negative effect on the organizations started by Yogi Bhajan.”
Akal President Daya Singh Khalsa met with George W Bush shortly after the 9.11 attacks.
Gurutej Singh did not return SFR’s call. The other Akal Security co-founder, Daya Singh, downplays the effects of a possible change in his company’s ownership.
“Whether it ends up changing the people on some board seats, none of that would really have any substantial impact on the company, as far as we can tell,” he says.
If nothing else, the lawsuits show how much Yogi Bhajan personally held his community together. Kamalla Rose, the ex-3HO member and gadfly, believes the sect is unraveling. “Everybody’s growing up and they may be deprogramming—particularly the Unto Infinity group,” she says. Reflecting on her time as a “flower child” 3HO follower, she is, in a way, grateful:
“I wanted to move into a commune. A lot of us did. We were looking for cults,” she says. “I’m just glad I didn’t join Scientology.”
While the court case drags on, the Sikh Dharma rank and file is torn.
“It feels like our Dharma has a huge wound that is bleeding profusely,” Jeevan Joti Kaur, a local yoga instructor, writes in a recent letter to Guruchander Singh, the numerologist and Sikh Dharma Stewardship leader. “People worked for our businesses for years… Don’t they deserve to know that it wasn’t all in vain?”
In his written response, Guruchander and the SDS board urge community members to “be patient and try to remain neutral.” In the meantime, people should “focus their divine energy on something positive.”
“Our prayer is that, when the litigation is finished, there will be a chance to come together,” the letter says. “Ultimately, whether or not that happens is in the hands of the Guru.” SFR
See more photos and discussion on facebook at:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=108156&id=1214270541&l=5a22781e63
“Amid the legal infighting following Yogi Bhajan’s death, critics are offering another portrait of the Sikh leader.”
![[image]](images/uploaded/image100.jpg)
3HO Sikhs are now fighting amongst themselves in a lawsuit over the millions of dollars in profits made from using the sacred Sikh religious symbols and scriptures for their own personal gain.3HO Sikhs, who follow Yogi Bhajan, funnel the money to support Yogi Bhajan's tantric cult church which 3HO Sikhs have deceptively camouflaged using names like "Sikh Dharma International", "3HO foundation", "Sikh Dharma Stewardship","SikhNet.com","Sikh Dharma Worldwide", "Unto Infinity Board","Khalsa Council" and "KRI(Kundalini Research Institute)". See "Sikhnet's" and "Sikh Dharma International's" slick new websites which were produced with the millions in ill-gained profits using the name of the Golden Temple, names and images of the Sikh Gurus, and sacred Sikh shabads for profit in commercial enterprises.
""Yogi's Legacy in Question"".[/link]
"New lawsuit hits Golden Temple with fraud!"
LETTERS IN THE EDITOR’S MAILBAG: Friday’s paper
Appeared in print: Friday, May 28, 2010
"Bhajan was a leader ‘by fluke’
Humility is the hallmark of a Sikh, and Bhajan had none of it. Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, describes people such as Bhajan succinctly: “Those ... who have no virtues but are filled with egotistical pride.”
Hardev Singh Shergill President, Khalsa Tricentennial Foundation of North America Editor-in-chief, The Sikh Bulletin El Dorado Hills, Calif.
"Sikhism and Tantric Yoga"
by Dr. Trilochan Singh (Link to entire book)
"The book Sikhism And Tantric Yoga is available at: www.gurmukhyoga.com.This website which is operated by a genuine White Sikh is highly recommended. Gursant Singh was a member of the Yogi Bhajan Cult (3HO and the Sikhnet Gora Sikhs or White Sikhs) for over 30 years and has intimate knowledge about the inner workings of this cult which attempts to miscegnate Sikhism with Hindu idolatry. I downloaded the book from Gursant’s website and found it to be absolutely compelling. I read it in one compulsive and sustained draught. It is a study not only about cults in Sikhism but about the miscegenation of the Sikh Religion by Hinduism. It is a classic work rendered in beautiful English prose and it is patently the work of a profound intellectual scholar with a deep knowledge of Sikhism."
Quotation taken from: http://www.sikharchives.com/?p=5513&cpage=1#comment-2011
You may also view individual chapters to "Sikhism and Tantric Yoga" at these links:
Sikhism & Tantric Yoga A Critical Evaluation of Yogi Bhajan
http://www.gurmukhyoga.com/forum/index.php?id=192
Sikh Doctrines and Yogi Bhajan's Secret Science
http://www.gurmukhyoga.com/forum/index.php?id=193
Yogi Bhajan's Adi Shakti Shaktimans and Shaktis
http://www.gurmukhyoga.com/forum/index.php?id=194
Yogi Bhajan's Clap Trap Theories of Kundalini Yoga
http://www.gurmukhyoga.com/forum/index.php?id=195
Yogi Bhajan's Ego Maniac Utterances
http://www.gurmukhyoga.com/forum/index.php?id=205
Yogi Bhajan's Seven Years in America and His Tinkling Titles
http://www.gurmukhyoga.com/forum/index.php?id=206
Yogi Bhajan's Arrest and Release on Bail
http://www.gurmukhyoga.com/forum/index.php?id=207
Yogi Bhajan Becomes the Only Maha Tantric in the World
http://www.gurmukhyoga.com/forum/index.php?id=208
Sikh Leaders without Conscience
http://www.gurmukhyoga.com/forum/index.php?id=209
Call to Truth and Authentic Sikhism
http://www.gurmukhyoga.com/forum/index.php?id=210
Please read an Excerpt below taken from "Sikhism and Tantric Yoga"
The Name of Golden Temple and its Murals
"In England last year a firm advertised some blue jeans as Jesus Jeans. The whole religious world of England rose in one protest and stopped the manufacture of these jeans. The word Golden Temple has become an instrument of commercial affairs of Yogi Bhajan He has now even named shoe stores as Golden Temple. I was given a "Wha Guru Chew.""
"Yogi Bhajan is using the sacred Sikh mantras and the sacred name of Guru Ram Das as a mantle for his Tantric Sex Yoga which will inevitably lead to mental and physical debauchery of those who take his brand of Sikhism contaminated by crazy sex-energizing asanas seriously."
Read about the "war between 3HO Sikh's Unto Infinity Board and Yogi Bhajan's Sikh Dharma". Yogi Bhajan set up all these organizations and installed their leaders. Decide for yourself if the Tantric Sex Yoga which Yogi Bhajan taught inevitably leads to mental and physical debauchery.
Many of these 3HO profiteers have cut their hair and renounced Sikhi! See these pictures below of Kartar Khalsa CEO of Golden Temple Foods and chairman of Yogi Bhajan's "Unto Infinity Board" who has cut his hair and is no longer a Sikh.
![[image]](images/uploaded/image51.jpg)
![[image]](images/uploaded/image112.jpg)
(Is it any wonder that Kartar and Peraim, Controlling members of Yogi Bhajan's "Unto Infinity Board",are wearing circus masks in the above photo?)http://cirrus.mail-list.com/khalsa-council/Kartar-Peraim.2-10.jpg
See these articles in today's Eugene Register Guard which shows the greed surrounding this dispute:
"Money trail at heart of Sikhs’ legal battle."
Wha Guru being used sacriligiously for huge profits by 3HO Sikhs
![[image]](images/uploaded/image31.jpg)
![[image]](images/uploaded/image32.jpg)
"Five flavors and they're all nuts!"
![[image]](images/uploaded/image57.jpg)
![[image]](images/uploaded/image58.jpg)
![[image]](images/uploaded/image59.jpg)
"What did the magician say to the Wha Guru Chew? Open sesame."
![[image]](images/uploaded/image38.jpg)
Yogi Bhajan used the sacred name of the Golden Temple, names and images of the Sikh Gurus, and sacred Sikh shabads for commercial enterprises to make millions of dollars. Wha Guru is even used as the name of a candy bar by Golden Temple Foods!Links appearing on the internet advertise Golden Temple along with wine and alcohol such as in this Google search link: "Golden Temple Granola - Food & Wine - Compare Prices" Other internet links associate Golden Temple massage oil with sex and sensual massages as in this Google search: "Sensual Soothing... Golden Temple Soothing Touch Massage Oil."
See for yourself the pictures below of the Darbar Sahib(Golden Temple) in Amritsar and Guru Tegh Bahadar featured on yogi tea boxes:
![[image]](images/uploaded/image37.jpg)
![[image]](images/uploaded/image60.jpg)
![[image]](images/uploaded/image33.jpg)
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3HO Sikhs are associating yogis, ashrams, tantric sex yoga rituals,drinking of wine and magicians of the occult with the Sikh Gurus and the Golden Temple See the Rare Photo (above) featuring the Harimandir sahib in 1908 when it was under the control of the Pundits or mahants. Sadhus and yogis felt free to sit wearing only a dhoti and no head coverings.The Gurdwara Reform Movement stopped such practices in India and gave the Gurdwaras back to Gursikhs.
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Idolatry is forbidden in sikhism....why does an 8-foot high statue of the Hindu god Ganesh, adorn the entranceway to the Siri Singh Sahib (yogi bhajan) lane in espanola. This is the hindu god of "prosperity", as in the 3HO publication "prosperity pathways".Adi Shakti Chandi 3HO Tantric Deity worshipped by 3HO in songs and prayers(shown above). Read about Yogi Bhajan's Shaktiman and Shakti women.
Read these shocking fire pujas and occult numerology,(below), practiced and advertised in the latest newsletter published by 3HO Sikhs. These "kriyas" or pujas are complete rubbish,only adding to the destruction and dissolution of the Sikh faith and should not be practiced by Sikhs of the Guru. The object of these practices is to combine the Sikh faith with Hinduism; to defang, neuter and completely destroy Sikhi. The strategy is to introduce idolatry and a stratified priesthood into the Sikh Religion. Yogi Bhajan and his 3HO shakti cult followers are introducing idolatry and Hindu practices of pujas and tantra mantra into the Sikh religion. The Bhajan movement is attempting to shift Sikh worship from the commonwealth of Gurdwaras to private estates controlled by 3HO priests of Yogi Bhajan's Tantric sex cult church.
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Idolatry is forbidden in Sikhism....why does a golden statue of a yogi adorn the entranceway to the 3HO Gurdwara in Espanola. This is a Hindu practise.
3-HO Sikhs demonstrate(in the photo above)their complete subservience to false worldly material power by exhibiting the Flag of God (The Nishaan Sahib) at an even level with the flag of the United States in front of the 3HO Gurdwara in New Mexico. The Nishaan Sahib, (The Respected Mark of God under the shadow of the Sikh Broadsword) should always fly higher than the flag of all the false materialists. The Flag of the Khalsa should occupy a place of exaltation above any government's flag that temporarily inhabits the material world.
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Tantric Yoga asanas (above) taught by Yogi Bhajan
and practised in 3HO Gurdwaras
"Tantric doctrines involving sex-poses or physical contact poses are extremely repulsive to Sikhism. The Sikh Gurus repeatedly ask the Sikhs to shun Tantric practices because they are based on a mentally perverted outlook of life. The Sikh Gurus ask the Sikhs to shun the very presence and association of Shakti-Cult Tantrics." Dr. Trilochan Singh "Sikhism and Tantric Yoga"
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See how Hindu gods and yogis are displayed in 3HO Gurdwaras, (see link in blue).
See this post which exposes the most shocking relationship Yogi Bhajan had with Jagjit Naamdhari who is considered by his disciples as the 11th Sikh Guru. The Naamdhari Sikhs keep the Siri Guru Granth in a closet while they bow to Jagjit and refer to him as "SatGuru Ji" as you can see in the photos at this link.
If you want to stop these degrading and sacriligious practices by Golden Temple Foods and Yogi Bhajan's cult followers; Post a letter of support on this website or write your local food stores and demand they stop selling Golden Temple Food's products. Some of the major stores which carry these products are Trader Joes, Whole Foods Market and Wild Oats but there are many many other stores who sell millions of dollars in Golden Temple Granola, Peace Cereal, Yogi Teas, massage oil and Wha Guru Chews.
Yogi Bhajan's sacrilegious teachings in the name of Sikhism are illustrated quite distinctly by pictures of Yogi Bhajan's portrait, hindu idols being displayed in and around 3-HO Gurdwaras and the practice of kundalini and sex energizing tantric yoga asanas inside 3-HO Gudwaras by Yogi Bhajan's students.
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Idolatry is forbidden in Sikhism. Why does an eight foot high image (above) of Yogi Bhajan controlling the tantric shakti "energy" adorn the 3HO Gurdwara in Espanola? You can see the menacing image of Yogi Bhajan overshadowing the Sangat on the right side of the entire Espanola Gurdwara in the photo above.
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Yogi Bhajan's students are intstructed to meditate on Yogi Bhajan's picture everyday which you can see displayed in the 3HO Espanola Gurdwara in these photos.
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In a painting at the New Mexico 3HO Gurdwara(above)you can see the sacrilegious misrepresentation of our sacred Khalsa symbol "Khanda" with two swords around it. You may also observe in this painting how Yogi Bhajan is depicted on an equal level with Guru Ram Daas(the 4th Sikh Guru): Dr. Trilochan Singh recounts this observation in 1977 when he writes, "The other picture was the Khalsa symbol Khanda with two swords around it. The Khanda (double-edged sword) within this symbol was replaced by a picture of an American woman with Sari-like robes. The woman is called Adi Shakti. I saw this published in the Beads of Truth in London and have already commented on it in my book, The Turban and the Sword of the Sikhs. I told Shakti Parwha that this is the most sacrilegious misrepresentation of our sacred symbol. As usual she dismissed my opinion as unimportant."
The sikh code of conduct says food offerings to the GURU are forbidden, but there is a 'testimony' page over at sikhnet.com, a 3HO run site loaded with volumes of Yogi Bhajan nonsense talks. Yogi Bhajan instructs 3Hoer's to prepare meals as offerings at the gurdwara and calls this "a dish for a wish". This is nothing more than the Hindu practice of puja. The testimony states "a dish for a wish".
Please read an Excerpt below taken from
"Sikhism and Tantric Yoga"
by Dr. Trilochan Singh (Link to entire book)
"Yogi Bhajan is using the sacred Sikh mantras and the sacred name of Guru Ram Das as a mantle for his Tantric Sex Yoga which will inevitably lead to mental and physical debauchery of those who take his brand of Sikhism contaminated by crazy sex-energizing asanas seriously."
Yogi Bhajan studied and taught at the Sivananda Ashram in Delhi. This, in addition to his first Kundalini Yoga teacher Sant Hazara Singh. In the mid-1960s, Harbhajan Singh took up a position as instructor at the Vishwayatan Ashram in New Delhi, under Dhirendra Brahmachari. This yoga centre was frequented by the Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, his daughter, Indira Gandhi, and diplomats and employees from a host of foreign embassies.
Here's an article on Sivananda's approach to Kundalini Yoga:
www.dlshq.org/download/kundalini.htm
These are all Hindu practices.
You can also read about the Gurdwara Reform Movement which stopped such practices in India and gave the Gurdwaras back to Gursikhs.
Gurdwara Reform Movement
A Rare Photo of Harimandir sahib in 1908 when it was under the control of the Pundits or mahants. Sadhus felt free to sit in meditation wearing only a dhoti.The Gurdwara Reform Movement (Gurdwara Sudhar Lehr) is the Legislation passed by the Punjab Legislative Council which marked the culmination of the struggle of the Sikh people from 1920-1925 to wrest control of their places of worship from the mahants or priests into whose hands they had passed during the eighteenth century when the Khalsa were driven from their homes to seek safety in remote hills and deserts.
When they later established their sway in Punjab, the Sikhs rebuilt their shrines endowing them with large jagirs and estates. The management, however, remained with the priests, belonging mainly to the Udasi sect, who, after the advent of the British in 1849, began to consider the shrines and lands attached to them as their personal properties and to appropriating the income accruing from them to their private use. Some of them alienated or sold Gurudwara properties at will. They had introduced ceremonies which were anathema to orthodox Sikhs. Besides, there were complaints of immorality and even criminal behavior lodged against the worst of them. All these factors gave rise to what is known as the Gurudwara Reform movement during which the Sikhs peaceful protests were met with violence and death and ended with them courting arrest on a large scale to gain the world's attention. Before it was all over many would fall as martyrs with some being literally blown apart while they were strapped to cannaon barrels.
‘During the Gurdwara Reform Movement, the Sikh leaders started a publication that was named Akali. From this paper and its policy the leaders began to be called Akalis, in view of which they formed the present Akali party. These Nihang Akalis should not be confused with the members of the Akali party.’ The Turban And The Sword’' , by Dr. Trilochan Singh. (Page 402)
I found this post at SikhSangat.com It exposes the most shocking relationship Yogi Bhajan had with Jagjit Naamdhari who is considered by his disciples as the 11th Sikh Guru. The Naamdhari Sikhs keep the Siri Guru Granth in a closet while they bow to Jagjit and refer to him as "SatGuru Ji" as you can see in the photos below.
The 'Namdhari' cult has been excommunicated from the Khalsa Panth. See for yourself the pictures of Yogi Bhajan depicting his close relationship with Jagjit Naamdhari.
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"However their are several instances which I find questionable about Yogi Bhajan. One includes the relationship they had with Jagjit Naamdhari (http://satguruji.blogspot.com/), and the other about an occurance that occured in the late 70's between Yogi and AKJ, where Yogi criticized Jatha for trying to "steal" members."
Yogi Bhajan wore huge gemstones for their so called “yogic energy and power". Yogi Bhajan adorned himself with these yogic rings and precious gems for different days of the week. Yogi Bhajan covered up the fact that these days are represented by different Hindu deities and the practice of wearing these yogic rings is really only the Hindu idea of pacifying the various gods and goddesses. Not only this, Yogi Bhajan used astrology and numerology in choosing these yogic rings. Yogi Bhajan believed the gemstones had "energy affects" and influenced our destiny, thinking and actions.
Yogi Bhajan shown here on Sikhnet wearing a yogic ring for power
Around the year 2000, Yogi Bhajan tried to personally sell me a yogic ring for several thousand dollars. We were at Hari Jiwan Singh's house in Espanola where HJ keeps a vast collection of gems worth millions of dollars. Yogi Bhajan told me. "You're naked." And he stated I needed a ring with a particular stone to protect me.
Yogi Bhajan’s wearing and promoting yogic rings is yet another Hindu practice camouflaged in the sheep’s clothing of "Aquarian or New Age spiritual thinking”. These things should not be practiced by Sikhs of the Guru. As Sikhs we should rely on the Guru alone for strength as Guru Arjan so beautifully states:
I have learnt the technique of true Yoga from the divine Guru. The True Guru has revealed this technique with the Light of the divine Word. Within my body He has revealed the Light that pervades all the regions of the earth. To this Light within me I bow and salute every moment. The initiation of the Guru are my Yogic rings and I fix my mind steadfastly on the One Absolute God.i,
A. G. Guru Arjan, Gaudi, p 208
The following is taken from "Sikhism and Tantric Yoga" by Dr. Trilochan Singh.
We quote Yogi Bhajan on Precious Stones and rings, which for him are his status symbol, and for possessing which he expends quite a lot of his energy and ingenuity. He says in Beads, Summer 1972, "Precious stones are not precious because the rich wear them and the poor do not. Rather, they are precious because when cut in the proper way they concentrate sun energy and can transmit to the individual through the skin. Hence most rings are worn on the ring finger. The quality of energy channeled by each stone differs and so does its effect on the individual. Stones also correspond to the planets and serve in mediating the scattered energy which comes from retrograding planets."
Yogi Bhajan has given the following comments on stones.
Ruby (Sun) concentrates the heart of the sun's rays.
Moonstone and Pearls (Moon) help balance out too much sun energy. They are commonly worn by Libra.
Diamond (Venus and practically everything) can concentrate miles of sun rays into one beam. Recently in Los Angeles someone was robbed of 100,000 worth of jewel within 72 hours.
Emerald (Mercury) has wonderful effect on the brain and is a cooling stone. Good luck for everyone.
Coral (Mars) is for balancing positive and negative forces.
Topaz (Jupiter) is a good luck stone.
Blue Sapphire (Saturn) can give so much energy to a person that he becomes negative. Those who are interested in details can read the Journal Beads, Summer 1972, p. 16. I do not know what is the opinion of the Jewelers on these statements but from the point of Sikhism these notions are worthless absurdities.
Yogi Bhajan does not wear the earrings of the Nath Panthi Yogis, but he wears precious gold rings (sometimes two and sometimes three) heavily studded with jewels, and cannot help displaying them ostentatiously, probably as a symbol of wealth acquired through the techniques of Tantric Yoga, which he sacrilegiously identifies with the techniques of Sikh mysticism. Bhai Gurdas, however, makes it clear to all Sikhs of all ages that Yoga asanas and yoga techniques are absolutely useless and unnecessary for Sikh meditations and the spiritual path of Sikhism:
jog jugat gursikh gurs am jhay a
The Guru has himself explained to the Sikhs the technique of true Yoga, and it is this: A Sikh must live in such a moral and spiritual poise that while hoping and waiting he ceases to aspire or crave for low ambitions and remains unconcerned and detached. He should eat little and drink little. He s
Letter to the Editor from Kirpal S. Khalsa Española Yogi battle brews on: Estate fight continues between Yogi Bhajan's widow, Bibiji & female assistants
by Gursant Singh , Yuba City California USA, Thursday, January 12, 2012, 15:09 (4704 days ago) @ Gursant Singh
edited by Gursant Singh, Thursday, January 12, 2012, 15:54
I used to think Kirpal Singh was an intelligent person, afterall he has a Phd and has taught religion at the University level but after he refused to recognize any truths in Dr. Trilochan Singh's book, "Sikhism & Tantric Yoga", a critical look at Yogi Bhajan's tantric and kundalini yoga system, my opinion of Kirpal radically changed to say the least.
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You can see in the background of this pic a golden idol of Baba Siri Chand which adorns the Sikh Gurdwara there in New Mexico where Kirpal maintains a leadership position & SikhNet has their office in the Yogi Bhajan dera.
To: Gurusant@hotmail.com
Subject: RE: “Sikhism and Tantric Yoga”
Date: Tue, 8 Dec 2009 09:40:31 -0700
From: KirpalS@akalsecurity.com
Guru Sant Singh --- Please use your intuition and your third eye, not your intellect. Siri Singh Sahib (Yogi Bhajan) was a man of God. Do not be swayed by these intellectual Sikhs who value the rituals and ceremonies of Sikhism but not the spirit. Nothing the Siri Singh Sahib taught in any way contridicted the Siri Guru Granth Sahib. The practice of yoga is condemned in Guru Sahib for its ritualistic practice, for leaving God's Name, but not because it is wrong or dangerous. The Guru makes hundreds of references to yoga technology and philosophy as a way to experience God. It says any practice, including yoga is worthless without God's Name. Kundalini Yoga and White Tantric Yoga are based on God's Name. This guy, Trilochan Singh, knows nothing of the spirit, consciousness or grace of the Siri Singh Sahib's teachings. He is looking from a very narrow, intellectual prespective. Don't go there. You have a consciousness and a spirit, experience it.
Kirpal S. Khalsa
Contract Administrator
Akal Security, Inc.
Phone: 505-692-6665
Fax: 505-747-9471
kirpals@akalsecurity.com
Letter to the Editor of The New Mexican
Kirpal Singh Khalsa:
Yogi Bhajan backer The Dec. 30 article, "Yogi battle brews on" by Tom Sharpe, is shoddy journalism at its worst and not worthy of a respectable newspaper such as The New Mexican. The article's only sources are individuals who were once students of Yogi Bhajan but who now have negative opinions. Does The New Mexican require sexual innuendo, rumors of corruption and heresy to sell papers? Has The New Mexican lost all journalistic integrity? Everyone is entitled to his or her opinions. It is a journalist's responsibility to discern opinion from fact and get a broad perspective on an issue.
Kirpal S. Khalsa Española
Letter to the Editor:
Cliff
Land of disenchantment
Kamalla is probably the best expert in the world, having painstakingly created an open forum for each and every direct participant to record and reflect on the terror this one man has wrought on thousands of families during his reign. I dare all those still living in a Bhajan community to read every post. I can tell you they have not done so, because to do so would mean opening their eyes.
Cliff Cowles
formerly Keval Singh Khalsa
Carmel, Cali
Yogi battle brews on Estate fight continues between Yogi Bhajan's widow, female assistants
Tom Sharpe | The New Mexican
Posted: Thursday, December 29, 2011
Musicians perform during a 2004 memorial service in Española for Yogi Bhajan. Yogi Bhajan’s widow is involved in a legal dispute with the late spiritual leader’s assistants over distribution of his assets. - New Mexican file photo
More than seven years after his death, Yogi Bhajan's widow and his younger female assistants disagree over how to divide his multimillion-dollar estate — which now includes the trademark rights to Yogi Tea.
Less than a year before his death in 2004, Yogi Bhajan, founder of a religious community near Española, signed a codicil to his 1987 will that called for a portion of his estate to go to a living trust to support 15 of his assistants.
His widow, Inderjit Kaur Puri, also known as Bibiji, did not immediately move to open a probate on his estate or to challenge the codicil assigning at least $4 million to the trust.
But in October 2007, the three trustees of the living trust sued Puri, claiming she was delaying distribution of funds to the trust by claiming she knew nothing about it.
In a counterclaim, Puri asked that the trustees be removed because, as three of the 15 assistants benefiting from the trust, they are in breach of their fiduciary duties.
Noting that Yogi Bhajan was suffering from physical and mental ailments at the time the codicil was signed, the counterclaim says the "assistants to Yogi Bhajan signed his name to the documents."
In April 2009, state District Judge James Hall dismissed the trustees' complaint but left the counterclaim intact. Hall retired at the end of 2009, and the case was transferred to District Judge Sarah Singleton, who waited until Nov. 7 to hold her first meeting on the case. She set a trial date for March 19.
Neither the trustees' lawyer, J. Katherine Girard, nor the trustees themselves, Sopurkh Kaur Khalsa, Shakti Parwha Kaur Khalsa and Ek Ong Kar Kaur Khalsa, have been available for comment.
Puri's attorney, Surjit Soni of Pasadena, Calif., agreed that the former assistants are due income from the trust. But he said that because Yogi Bhajan had handled his family's financial affairs, "like most guys tend to do," Puri was unaware of his donations to the living trust.
Soni, who is also Puri's nephew, said he is asking the judge to apply community-property rules to the case, so that the "marital estate" is divided in half and payments to the 15 assistants come out of Yogi Bhajan's portion, not Puri's.
Not until 2009, five years after Yogi Bhajan's death, did Puri move to open Yogi Bhajan's will to probate proceedings in state District Court in Santa Fe. Judge Barbara Vigil assigned Christopher Cullen, a Santa Fe lawyer, as the personal representative of the estate, but "gave him very specific but very limited instructions about what he could investigate and how he could investigate," Soni said.
As a result, Cullen was unable to identify all of the assets of the estate, and Vigil ordered the probate closed, "saying no other assets have been discovered," Soni said. "We disagree with that because we don't think the investigation was complete." He said he is appealing that closure.
This year, the estate became significantly more valuable because of a federal trademark case over Yogi Tea — a blend of black tea, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, ginger and peppercorns that Yogi Bhajan used to serve at his kundalini yoga classes and went on to sell at his restaurants and health-food stores.
In 2004, a Eugene, Ore., company called Golden Temple of Oregon began marketing Yogi Tea, using Yogi Bhajan's name and likeness, under an agreement with him. This continued for four years after his death, with royalties split between Puri, the assistants' trust and a religious trust. In 2008, Golden Temple quit paying royalties and using Yogi Bhajan's name and likeness, but continued to use the name Yogi Tea to begin selling another tea called just Yogi.
Puri sued, and this fall an arbiter ordered Golden Temple to cease using the trademark by Jan. 1 and pay $822,302 to Yogi Bhajan's estate, based on sales in recent years. With Yogi Tea sales of $27 million in 2009 in the United States and Europe, the Eugene Register-Guard estimated the heirs might be owed another $485,905 by the end of 2012 — plus what they might gain from selling the trademark to others.
A separate but related case was brought in Oregon state court by the ministers of the religious trust, Unto Infinity, against Golden Temple. This month, a Portland, Ore., judge ruled that Golden Temple's CEO, Kartar Singh Khalsa, unjustly enriched himself and other company executives at the expense of Unto Infinity. Monetary damages have yet to be determined, but Unto Infinity is seeking $50 million. Several other trademarks used by Golden Temple, in addition to Yogi Tea, remain in contention.
Soni, Puri's attorney, said these rulings prove that not all the assets of the estate were identified — partly because the trustees for the assistants did not thoroughly investigate. "We demonstrated there are trademarks that the trustees did not appreciate, recognize, pursue, claim — that we, at great personal expense, have been able to secure," he said.
The litigation over Yogi Tea has been covered closely by the Sikh News Network (sikhnn.com). A November article there pointed out that the assistants are "Caucasians" who converted to Sikhism and assumed their Sikh surnames, posting photographs of the former assistants who were not wearing the turbans or dress worn by traditional Sikhs.
"Peraim Kaur, one of his personal staff members, in her testimony for another lawsuit in Oregon, described how she worked long hours for little pay," says the article. "She told the court she had no vacations and was on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It also is common knowledge that his personal staff was discouraged from having outside relationships."
The Sikh News Network's correspondent on those stories, Kamalia Kaur, described herself as a "survivor of the YB [Yogi Bhajan] cult." Kaur, now 58 and living in Bellingham, Wash., said she joined Yogi Bhajan's Healthy, Happy, Holy Organization, or 3HO, 40 years ago after taking a kundalini yoga class with her husband at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
Years later, while living in the Bay Area of California, she began questioning the "organization's dysfunctional side," she wrote in an email. "Soon I was shunned — and former students started calling me and telling me their horrible stories. Then I got a threatening phone call."
Kaur eventually divorced her husband, who remained with Yogi Bhajan's organization. She gave up custody of her three children, turned over her money to her ex-husband, "and hit the streets. But I couldn't stop studying the story of my life," she wrote. "When you lose the years 18-37, your prime, to ... serving a sociopath, you might as well dedicate a few years to warning and educating others about authoritarian groups."
She now moderates an online forum called "The Wacko World of Yogi Bhajan" on which both Kaur and others have referred repeatedly to Yogi Bhajan's assistants as his harem. But that may the least of the charges on the website, where Yogi Bhajan is accused of a variety of illegal activities, including fraudulent marketing schemes, drug dealing and corruption.
Recently, Kaur has pointed out that one of Yogi Bhajan's former assistants was an aide to former Gov. Bill Richardson. "Siri Trang Kaur is one of the younger women listed among the fifteen 'personal assistants' in Bhajan's trust," she wrote. "She's cut in for six percent of the distribution in the trust that's part of Bibiji's continuing legal dispute with the harem."
Siri Trang Kaur, who sometimes uses the last name Khalsa, is listed as an associate of Albuquerque political and public relations specialist Doug Turner in a firm called Policy and Positions. The company's website says she was the director of marketing for the firm that first brought Yogi Tea and other Golden Temple products to the market, worked as a foreign policy adviser in Richardson's 2008 presidential campaign, and that she is now "on assignment with the U.S. State Department in Afghanistan." She did not return an email seeking comment on this story.
Soni dismissed Kamalia Kaur's allegations: "We have resisted getting involved in that kind of silly debate. If she's got an ax to grind, she's got an ax to grind. If her experience is less than optimal, that's fine. ...
"What exactly is a cult? Every born-again community, whether it's Baptist, Anglican, Buddhist, every one of them is a cult. Cult, unfortunately, has a negative suggestion and implication."
Kaur is hardly the only former Yogi Bhajan disciple to break with 3HO. Guru Sant Singh Khalsa, who in 1982 unsuccessfully challenged the U.S. Department of Defense's rule banning servicemembers from wearing traditional Sikh garb, said he became disillusioned after visiting India and realizing that real Sikh culture was different than Yogi Bhajan had led him to believe.
Now living in Yuba City, Calif., Gura Sant said Yogi Bhajan's devotion to tantric yoga, astrology and other "new age" practices would be forbidden by traditional Sikhs, who also would abhor the "cult of personality" that sprung up around him. He recalled that Yogi Bhajan collected art that traditional Sikhs would consider pornographic and regularly slept in his room with one of his "secretaries" while his wife slept in another room.
As early as 1977, Time magazine took notice of rumors about Yogi Bhajan's assistants. "Bhajan has repeatedly been accused of being a womanizer," it said in a story about 3HO. "Colleen Hoskins, who worked seven months at his New Mexico residence, reports that men are scarcely seen there. He is served, she says, by a coterie of as many as 14 women, some of whom attend his baths, give him group massages, and take turns spending the night in his room while his wife sleeps elsewhere."
Contact Tom Sharpe at 986-3080 or tsharpe@sfnewmexican.com.
Most traditional Sikhs find Yogi Bhajan’s use of the Golden Temple for commercial profit abhorrent, as exemplified by this comment from a traditional Sikh: “The Golden Temple is the English name for Darbar Sahib located in Amritsar India. The Golden Temple is a central Gurdwara (house of worship) for Sikhs everywhere. Yogi Bhajan was dead wrong to use the Golden Temple to sell breakfast cereal and tea, to feed his wallet and ego. Sikhism teaches to never mix faith with commerce. Sikh teachings are offered freely. No one should profit when sharing the Sikh religion. And no one should trivialize other's religious traditions, much less profit from cheapening us.”
http://www.causes.com/causes/509680-stop-hearthside-foods-use-of-the-golden-temple-brand/about
I also want to point out that I have changed my name to Gursant Singh from the sacrilegious form of Guru Sant which Yogi Bhajan gave me using astrology and numerology which are against the Sikh code of conduct . Dr. Iqbal Singh who has written five books on Sikh history explains best why this change in the form of my name was necessary. …” Gursant that meaning is Saint of Guru…. In the Sikh History word Gur has been used by the Sikhs. The Guru word is used before the name of the ten Guru Ji and Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji and not before the name of any human being.” Yogi Bhajan regularly gave these sacrilegious forms of Sikh names in order to corrupt and destroy the relationship of American followers of Sikhism against the traditional Sikh community.
http://gurmukhyoga.com/forum/index.php?id=380
Now that Yogi Bhajan's Sikh Dharma Worldwide Organization has won their big lawsuit against Yogi Bhajan's Unto Infinity Board, will SDW continue their anti Sikh agenda?
Judge Issues Ruling
It's clear from the Judge's ruling that Yogi Bhajan had total control of western Sikhs and Bhajan's Sikh Dharma in promoting anti- Sikh tantric yoga and occult astrology. Yogi Bhajan acted like a mini-pope! Judge Roberts says, "During his lifetime, Yogi Bhajan maintained exclusive central authority over the organizations he created to advance the world view and practices he taught. He(Yogi Bhajan) maintained all the reins of ultimate power and direction in his own hands until his final incapacity and death" Dr. Trilochan Singh says in a book critical of Yogi Bhajan, "Yogi Bhajan was absolutely frank in what he said and I believe every word of it. I asked him Is Sikhism the core of his teachings of Tantric Yoga? Which of these two contradictory disciplines is his basic philosophy? To this question he perhaps honestly replied that Tantra (White as he calls it) is his basic faith while Sikhism is only an off-shoot of his Tantric system."
'Findings and Conclusions'
Here is what Judge Roberts says:
The dispute involves a Russian nesting doll of nonprofit and for-profit entities, organized by and through Yogi Bhajan beginning in the mid-1970’s. Certain organizations were devoted to education; to maintenance of spiritual records; to promotion of religious functions, such as the ordination and instruction of Sikh Dharma ministers, and other nonprofit objectives. Other profit-making organizations were formed by individual adherents, who contributed the ownership of the businesses to provide a source of support, prestige, and employment for the Sikh Dharma community. Yogi Bhajan, the founder of the Western movement of Sikh Dharma that is involved in this controversy, and a teacher of the related practices of Kundalini yoga, came to the United States from India. A charismatic leader and teacher, Yogi Bhajan attracted a body of adherents to some or all of the practices and precepts of Sikh Dharma of the Western Hemisphere. This body of adherents is sometimes referred to, here, as the Sikh Dharma community and its institutions as the Yogi Bhajan inspired organizations. Yogi Bhajan taught Kundalini yoga and, in that role, introduced many students to his spiritual beliefs as well.
Most of the individuals involved in the present controversy initially became interested in Sikh Dharma through seeking to learn the practice of yoga, on or near college campuses, as young men and women during the 1970’s and 1980’s.
Later, the seat of the corporate network shifted to Oregon and New Mexico entities, including nonprofit and for-profit entities held by the nonprofits. (SSS of SD, the California corporation sole, was designed to terminate at Yogi Bhajan’s death, and its assets to be transferred to an Oregon religious corporation.) In the design and conduct of many or most of these later-founded organizations, Yogi Bhajan was assisted by Roy Lambert, a Portland lawyer with the firm of Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt. After Yogi Bhajan’s death, Lambert continued to serve as legal counsel for many of the Yogi Bhajan inspired entities, including Unto Infinity, LLC, and KIIT, defendants here.
Yogi Bhajan also designated an inner circle of trusted lieutenants to occupy positions in the control and administration of his interlocking organizations, but he maintained all the reins of ultimate power and direction in his own hands until his final incapacity and death.3
The Yogi Bhajan affiliated organizations included for-profit enterprises including, most importantly, a private security company, Akal Security, Inc., and a manufacturer and distributor of tea and cereal products, Golden Temple, Inc. The for-profit enterprises were formed by Sikh Dharma adherents and contributed to Yogi Bhajan inspired non-profit entities (initially, Akal was contributed to Sikh Dharma-NM, and Golden Temple, Inc., to Sikh Dharma, Inc.). Their profits provided substantial support to the non-profit activities of the Sikh Dharma affiliated organizations.
In addition to appointing lieutenants to roles in the supervision of his organizations, Yogi Bhajan maintained personal attendants, a group of women upon whom he became dependent for day-to-day and hour-to-hour support and companionship in his home as his health declined toward death from complications of diabetes and kidney failure. In the fall of 2004, this personal staff lived with him in a New Mexico residential compound called the Ranch. They served rotating shifts so that one of them was with him at all times of the day and night.
During Yogi Bhajan’s life, his personal retainers and administrative staff served at very modest compensation; however, it was widely understood that he had assured these personal assistants life-long compensation. This promise was known as the Yogi Bhajan Assurances. In his will, Yogi Bhajan planned to fulfill the promise by creating a trust called the Staff Endowment, to which he gave a half interest in royalties earned by the license of his name and likeness for use on the products of Golden Temple, Inc. The beneficiaries of the Staff Endowment were the former personal retainers and staff, and the income derived by that trust was intended to fund their promised life-time income.
However, after the death of Yogi Bhajan in 2004, the widow of Yogi Bhajan (referred to as Bibiji) challenged the gift of intellectual property rights. As a result, the funding stream for Staff Endowment was cast into doubt. It became questionable whether the funds ever would be paid, because of the claims by Bibiji, still unresolved as of the time of the trial of this matter in 2011.
In 2003, anticipating the need to organize the affiliated entities to function after his death, Yogi Bhajan created Unto Infinity, LLC, an Oregon nonprofit LLC, to act as the administrative center of the organizations comprising his nonprofit and for-profit network of entities. The Organizational Agreement of Unto Infinity provides that the sole original member of Unto Infinity was Yogi Bhajan. Its board of managers was made up of Yogi Bhajan and four of his trusted lieutenants. In a “Proclamation” signed by Yogi Bhajan in June 2004 (when he understood that he was dying, and had discontinued any but palliative care) he stated:
“Whereas the Siri Singh Sahib [the title held by Yogi Bhajan] has the responsibility of promulgating and stating the rules and procedures of the Sikh Dharma,
And
“Whereas there is a need for the orderly and just administration of the Dharma,
“Therefore, I hereby proclaim that Unto Infinity, LLC, is the entity authorized by me to continue to exercise the administrative authority of the office of the Siri Singh Sahib of Sikh Dharma once I no longer occupy that office, in all those cases where authorization by the Siri Singh Sahib [i.e., Yogi Bhajan] is required in the articles, bylaws, or any contractual commitment of a Sikh Dharma affiliated organization.
“This Proclamation is hereby adopted under the authority granted to me as the Siri Singh Sahib of Sikh Dharma, I set my hand and seal this 30 day of June, 2004,
[signed] “Siri Singh Sahib Bhai Sahib
“Harbhajian Singh Khalsa Yogiji”
This proclamation stated that the purpose of Unto Infinity was to serve as the “administrative authority” of the chief office of the religious movement, and consequently to be integral to the religious organizations (although it does not have the effect of altering the corporate documents of the various affected corporations and companies).
An undated Amended and Restated Operating Agreement (Ex. 66) reflects that Yogi Bhajan was replaced as the sole member of Unto Infinity by the Siri Singh Sahib Corporation (SSSC). SSSC is an Oregon nonprofit religious corporation that had been formed to serve as the sole member of Sikh Dharma, Inc., after Yogi Bhajan's death or incapacity. Subsequently, it apparently was given the same role in Unto Infinity. SSSC itself has no members.
Pursuant to the 1997 Articles of SSSC, after the death or incapacity of Yogi Bhajan, the directors of SSSC were to be those persons he had previously designated in a written directive given in confidence to Lambert, as corporate attorney, and to the Siri Sikdar Sahib (or Sahiba) of Sikh Dharma (designated to that post by Yogi Bhajan as his spiritual successor), who would also become a permanent member of that board.
However, after the death of Yogi Bhajan, a succession of Restated Articles for SSSC were filed, each certified by Sopurkh Kaur Khalsa (also a member of the board of Unto Infinity) as president of SSSC as having been adopted by Yogi Bhajan on October 1, 2, and 3 respectively -- the three days leading up to his death.
Lambert denied that Yogi Bhajan had left any designation of a successor board that was sufficiently formal to satisfy the terms of the SSSC articles, and accordingly, in lieu of such a designation, the four-member Unto Infinity board assumed complete control of SSSC after Yogi Bhajan’s death. Because SSSC was the sole (but powerless) member of Unto Infinity, the board of Unto Infinity obtained comprehensive and unchecked control (directly or indirectly) of all other Yogi Bhajan inspired nonprofit and for-profit companies and corporations. The restated Articles designate the remaining managers of Unto Infinity LLC to serve as the board of SSSC, to succeed Yogi Bhajan in that role if no other designation is made. Exs. 104, 105, 106. Parties in this litigation have not asked the court to determine the validity of those changes, and the court therefore does not pass on their validity.
SSSC, the sole member of Unto Infinity, has no operations or property. Its existence, as a member, is a legal requirement for Unto Infinity's existence as a limited liability company.
In this somewhat convoluted manner, the sole successors of Yogi Bhajan, as the ultimate and unlimited managers of the entire network of nonprofit and for-profit affiliated entities, became the members of the Unto Infinity board.
The Unto Infinity board members upon Yogi Bhajan’s death were Siri Ram Kaur Khalsa and defendants Peraim Kaur Khalsa, Siri Karm Kaur Khalsa, and Sopurkh Kaur Khalsa. (Siri Ram Kaur Khalsa resigned from the board after the 2007 transaction that is the center of this controversy but before the complaints were filed in this case. She is not a defendant.)
In 2005, the Unto Infinity board members exercised their power to place defendant Kartar Singh Khalsa on the board as a full voting member. (He had previously served as an ex-officio member.) Kartar Singh Khalsa was also the chief executive officer of Golden Temple, Inc.
The 2007 Operating Agreement of Golden Temple of Oregon LLC.5:
“All of KIIT’s outstanding stock is owned by Unto Infinity, LLC, an Oregon limited liability company. Unto Infinity, LLC is a disregarded entity for income tax purposes and is a division of Siri Singh Sahib Corporation, an Oregon nonprofit corporation …” ,
Although SSSC is the sole member of Unto Infinity, it can neither appoint nor dismiss board members of Unto Infinity (Unto Infinity’s board appoints and dismisses its own members), alter the operating agreement of Unto Infinity, or in any other respect control Unto Infinity. To the contrary, SSSC is limited to act subject to the approval of the Unto Infinity board. For all intents and purposes, Unto Infinity (and its subsidiary KIIT, which has the same board for the transactions relevant here, and which acted jointly with Unto Infinity, by simultaneous decisions of their synonymous boards) is self-governed by a board which is self-perpetuating and self-directed. It is the ultimate authority over Golden Temple and KIIT.
The board members are compensated by self-determined amounts drawn from the for-profit organizations. Primarily because of the success of Akal Security and Golden Temple, the funds available to Unto Infinity have increased sharply since the death of Yogi Bhajan. The compensation of the Unto Infinity managers has also increased (since 2005) to a level at all times in six figures, and as high as $185,000 per year. The board members of Unto Infinity/KIIT meet a handful of times a year, usually by telephone, but, on occasion, in person.
To summarize the identities of the organizations chiefly involved:
a) Khalsa International Industries and Trades Company, Inc. (KIIT), is a holding company organized under Nevada law, having no operations and created in order to receive and hold the shares in Golden Temple of Oregon, Inc., an operating company in the manufacture and distribution of foods in Eugene, Oregon; and Akal Security, Inc., a New Mexico security company which contracts with governmental agencies. KIIT is a wholly owned subsidiary of Unto Infinity.
b. Unto Infinity, LLC (Unto Infinity) is a nonprofit Oregon limited liability company organized to act as the administrative authority of the office of the religious leader of the movement established by Yogi Bhajan. Unto Infinity owns all shares of KITT and has the power and authority to appoint the boards of the religious corporations and nonprofits established by Yogi Bhajan.
c. Siri Sikh Sahib of Sikh Dharma (SSS of SD), is a California corporation sole, a religious corporation holding title to property held in the official capacity of the leader of a church or other religious body. With the death of Yogi Bhajan, SSS of SD was designed to dissolve and to transfer its assets to SSSC. (It has not done so, as a strategic move related to ongoing litigation with Bibiji regarding her claims as heir and widow of Yogi Bhajan)
c. Siri Singh Sahib Corporation (SSSC) is an Oregon religious corporation, organized to act as the successor legal organization to the SSS of SD, the California corporation sole, after the death of Yogi Bahjan and for religious, charitable and educational activities, and to act as “guardian of those assets of the SSS of SD which are conveyed to it, and Unto Infinity, LLC.” Restated Articles of Incorporation, Pl. Ex. 25. SSSC is the sole member of Unto Infinity, but with no authority over it.
SSSC has never had a board of directors and is governed by the Unto Infinity board as an “executive board.”
d. Sikh Dharma, Inc. (SDI) is a nonprofit religious corporation under the California Nonprofit Religious Corporation Law, of which the sole member is Unto Infinity, organized to advance the religion of Sikh Dharma and as an association of religious organizations teaching principles of Sikh Dharma, including by ordination of ministers of divinity and operation of places of worship. It has been active in the promotion of the religion, and its then-directors initiated the private plaintiff’s lawsuit before Unto Infinity exercised its authority to discharge all of them and replace them with directors who withrew SDI’s support of the lawsuit. It was then named as a nominal defendant because the private plaintiffs seek relief including payment of damages to it.
e. Golden Temple, Inc., is a for-profit, Oregon corporation in the food products industry with operations in Eugene, Oregon, and sales nationally. At relevant times, it has manufactured and distributed herbal teas and cereal products. All of the shares of Golden Temple, Inc., were passed (through intermediate steps explained below) through various religious institutions and by 2007 held by Unto Infinity's holding company, KIIT.
f. Akal Security, Inc. (Akal), is a for-profit New Mexico corporation in the business of providing security services to governmental entities. Akal was founded by a member of the Sikh Dharma community, one of the private plaintiffs, Gurutej Singh Khalsa, and he donated it to Sikh Dharma of New Mexico, Inc., (an affiliate of Sikh Dharma, Inc.) on Yogi Bhajan's assurances that Akal would be held to further Sikh Dharma. All Akal shares were transferred (as explained below) ultimately to KIIT.
The valuable assets controlled by Unto Infinity include other assets, such as real property. The complaint as originally framed by private plaintiffs attacked dealings by defendants as to all these assets; however, the controversy developed at trial focused on actions taken with respect to Golden Temple, Inc., and Golden Temple’s European affiliate, KIT-BV, a Netherlands corporation (KIT-BV). Continued at Link
I just received this e-mail from SDW with this spin on the judge's decision:
December 13, 2011
Dear Members of the Sadh Sangat,
Sat Nam and blessings to all. Today is a joyous day of victory for the Dharma! The Judge issued her Findings and Conclusions (the equivalent of a verdict in a jury trial), and ruled in our favor on all of our claims which were: Breach of Fiduciary Duty, Aiding and Abetting Breach of Fiduciary Duty and Unjust Enrichment. Her ruling is posted in its entirety on the SDW website in the Legal Documents Archive at: Judge's Findings and Conclusion.
Some notable conclusions from the Judge:
"I find established by clear and convincing evidence that a charitable trust existed and that the assets held by Unto Infinity and its subsidiary holding company, including Golden Temple, Inc. were assets held in trust. The trust was dedicated to support and advance the religious tenets and practices espoused by Yogi Bhajan in Sikh Dharma of the Western Hemisphere. Unto Infinity this controlled assets (whether through KIIT, as Unto Infinity's subsidiary and agent, or directly) impressed with a charitable trust."
"The court finds the express designation of SSSC and its subsidiary Unto Infinity as "guardian" of assets from SSS of SD expresses an intent that Unto Infinity hold the assets subject to a fiduciary duty to use the assets for the religious purposes of SSS of SD."
"Repeatedly, and at the instruction of (Roy) Lambert, members of the boards made statements crafted by Lambert to deny that any change in ownership had occurred and to conceal the true nature of the transaction."....."Not only were the public statements prepared by Lambert false, but they were intended by the board members who made the statements to mislead the Sikh Dharma community because the transaction - if fully disclosed- would inspire protest and likely litigation as a violation of trust obligations. All parties understood that the transaction could well constitute such a violation of the entrustment exclusively for religious and charitable purposes and this was the reason for the deception."
"The thorough-going violation by KIIT and Unto Infinity of fiduciary duties to the charitable trust through engaging in the disposition of Golden Temple, Inc, as they did, was proven beyond any doubt."
"Finally, strong, clear and convincing evidence establishes that Golden Temple, LLC, and all proceeds of its business, income, substitutes and assets, including those of KIT-BV, is the property that is impressed with the charitable trust private plaintiffs and the Attorney General seek to vindicate. These findings conclude the liability for unjust enrichment as against GTM and Kartar Singh Khalsa."
"To the extent that individual member managers received funds as a distribution of the proceeds of Golden Temple, therefore, they were unjustly enriched."
The court has requested the parties in the case to submit any additional briefing regarding remedies in light of the findings and conclusions within three weeks of the date of this opinion at which time she will have a hearing on remedies.
Blessings and deep gratitude to the Sangat for their prayers and continued support through this lengthy and challenging legal process. This is a wonderful victory for our Dharma. May we continue forward in unity and purity of consciousness to serve the mission of Sikh Dharma and the legacy of the Siri Singh Sahib (Yogi Bhajan).
Blessings to all,
SS Gurujot Kaur Khalsa
Secretary General
Sikh Dharma Worldwide
Now that Yogi Bhajan's Sikh Dharma Worldwide Organization has won their big lawsuit against Yogi Bhajan's Unto Infinity Board, will SDW continue their anti Sikh agenda?
Why does Yogi Bhajan's Sikh Dharma Worldwide Organization auction tantric necklaces, astrology and numerology readings to raise funds? It is forbidden in the Sikh Reht Maryada for Sikhs to practice: “Influence of stars, Magic spells, incantations, omens, auspicious times, days & occasions, , horoscopic dispositions,” Chapter X Article XVI.
I just read a letter from Hari Jiwan Singh Khalsa to Yogi Bhajan's "3HO family". Hari Jiwan(Sat Bachan Kaur who donated the tantric necklace above is his wife) was considered by Yogi Bhajan as his "right Hand man" and spent literally everyday of his life from 1978 until Yogi Bhajan's death in 2004 with his "Tantric Master". This letter from Hari Jiwan proves that Yogi Bhajan himself approved and promoted these anti Sikh tantric necklaces. "Guru Hans was the impetus behind the “Tantric Necklace.” He’s an architect by training and while looking through old architectural books, came across the ancient geometrical pattern used in this necklace since ancient times. The Siri Singh Sahib (Yogi Bhajan), who is the ‘Mahan Tantric’ (the Master of Tantric Yoga of which there is only one on the planet at a time), was so excited when this rediscovery was brought to him that he personally blessed each one, refined the process, and blessed Guru Hans Singh for his service."
Tantric necklace being auctioned to raise money for Yogi Bhajan's Sikh Dharma Worldwide Organization
Jewelry from Nine Treasures
Tantric Necklace
Description:
Pink Crystal (Fire-Polished) Tantric Necklace from Nine Treasures; Jivan Jewerly.
Donated By:
Nine Treasures; Jivan Jewelry: satbachan@ninetreasures.com or 505-747-2524
Here comes the hardball sales pitch from Hari Jiwan for the anti Sikh "individually blessed tantric necklaces by Yogi Bhajan" himself. This comes just one day after the soft sell letter I posted yesterday.
Just read the sacrilegious crap in Hari Jiwan's letter to Yogi Bhajan's "3HO family". Hari Jiwan(Sat Bachan Kaur who donated the tantric necklace above is his wife) was considered by Yogi Bhajan as his "right Hand man" and spent literally every day of his life from 1978 until Yogi Bhajan's death in 2004 with his "Mahan Tantric Master". This letter from Hari Jiwan proves that Yogi Bhajan himself approved and promoted these anti Sikh tantric necklaces. http://gurmukhyoga.com/forum/index.php?id=402
Hari Jiwan says,
Sat Nam Dear Family,
Blessings from snowy New Mexico. It has been one year since I started writing all of you and telling stories of my life as lived and learned at the feet of the Master (Yogi Bhajan). It has been truly an honor to share these memories with you and I have greatly appreciated all of your feedback. It’s been a further honor for me in reminding myself of how I’ve been blessed and the feeling of gratitude which follows.
As some of you know, I am a great believer in supporting all facets of our Dharma, our organization, which was created by the Siri Singh Sahib (Yogi Bhajan). Sikh Dharma Worldwide (SDW) is an entity that is near and dear to my heart and works tirelessly to maintain the essence of Yogi Bhajan's Teachings.
This winter SDW is holding an online Auction with unique, spiritual, one-of-a-kind items donated by our global Sangat. Items include custom artwork, jewelry, and passes to events such as Summer Solstice, Children’s Camp and Women’s Camp etc. etc. http://www.32auctions.com/organizations/2410/auctions/2772
If you are on the lookout for unique, conscious gifts for your friends and family, check out the many wonderful options that they have and help support SDW as well. If you have items you'd like to donate to the auction, please let them know.
I was happy to donate a Tantric Necklace to the auction and was trying to think of additional ways to help support SDW. I am therefore excited to extend this special offer to you, my friends and family. Please visit my website, www.jivanjewelry.com where you can choose from a many beautiful and powerful Tantric Necklaces. The Master has personally blessed all these necklaces individually. If you see something you like, enter code HARI2011 and receive 15% off your order. In addition, 15% of your purchase will also be donated to SDW.
We can all help the Siri Singh Sahib’s (Yogi Bhajan) legacy in believing in and donating for his and our Guru’s glory. And, here’s the best part, we begin to receive blessings right away in the form of a beautiful and powerful Tantric Necklace.
In Humility of Gratitude and Service,
MSS Hari Jiwan Singh Khalsa
Nine Treasures | 718 McCurdy Rd. | Espanola, NM 87532
"Mahan tantric", Yogi Bhajan and his wife Bibiji Inderjit Kaur Puri who promote a whole slew of anti-Sikh activities received Panth Rattan. Now Sikh scholars want to frame rules for the award after once again it shows to be politically driven
Panth Rattan has become a politically driven award particularly considering that previous recipients before the corrupt Prakash Singh Badal were the "Mahan tantric", Yogi Bhajan and his wife Bibiji Inderjit Kaur Puri who promote a whole slew of anti-Sikh activities.
After viewing these pictures of Bibiji performing Hindu pujas you'll see why she is clearly not a Gursikh & her positions of leadership in the Sikh community should be revoked! You'll notice the same Swami is leading the puja as the one at 11-11-11 shiv/shakti yoga event.
S.S. Gurubachan Singh at top left above Yogi Bhajan with orange turban. From left to right, Bibiji Inderjit Kaur Khalsa (Yogi Bhajan's wife), Bhai Sahib Satpal Singh Khalsa(Yogi Bhajan's son in law) and Kamaljit Kaur Khalsa (Yogi Bhajan's daughter) all wearing white turbans and donning the red mark of Shiva on their foreheads.
Sikhs do not perform these Hindu rituals which are strictly forbidden by the Sikh Reht Maryada. http://gurmukhyoga.com/forum/index.php?id=344
Let's make clear that Yogi Bhajan and Bibiji are not just lighting some candles and that this is in fact a Hindu puja in the pic above. This is the way a puja works. The devotee of shiva or whatever deity you are worshiping makes an offering to the god or goddess in return for a wish being granted. In this case it appears the offering was flower petals. Usually some kind of fire is involved to burn away or cleanse karmas from the devotee making the offering, in this case a candle is being used. Then the Hindu pundit or swami blesses the devotee with a red mark of paint on the forehead (the third eye in yogic tradition) which is commonly called the eye of Shiva. You can see in the photos that all these elements are being met for a Hindu puja.
Bibiji Inderjit Kaur Khalsa, PhD, holds the distinguished position of Bhai Sahiba or Chief Religious Minister of Sikh Dharma, and she was the wife of Siri Singh Sahib Bhai Sahib Harbhajan Singh Khalsa Yogiji for 52 years. To Sikhs around the globe, she is a revered "mother" and honored as an ambassador of good will and a harbinger of interfaith dialogue among religious leaders. In 2006 she was named the New Mexico Ambassador of Peace by Senator Shannon Robinson. Governor Bill Richardson appointed Bibiji as his Representative to India in 2007.
For Bibiji & Yogi Bhajan and now their students to indulge in Hindu practices, such as having a Homa (fire puja) ceremony in front of the Siri Guru Granth Sahib, to visit astrologers – as he did on a regular basis, to give people Sikh names through numerology rather than consult SGGS – I could go on and on – is totally hypocritical. Their disciples are now following in their footsteps.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=169369606419559&aid=42382
The 3HO people may do whatever Hindu practices they like; there is no law against it but they should not claim to be Khalsa or use Khalsa names, Singh and Kaur. For them to use the name Khalsa, when the overwhelming majority of them neither recites panj bani nor wear panj kaka, is hypocritical in the extreme. Of course this is really Yogi Bhajan’s fault for a really stupid decision to name all his students Singh/Kaur Khalsa, no matter what their level of commitment was to Sikhi. I believe this has deeply wounded the image of The Khalsa Panth in America.
Here is the condemnation of Idol Worship by Guru Gobind Singh Ji (extracts from various passages):
ਕਾਹੂ ਲੈ ਪਾਹਨ ਪੂਜ ਧਰਯੋ ਸਿਰ ਕਾਹੂ ਲੈ ਲਿੰਗ ਗਰੇ ਲਟਕਾਇਓ ॥
Someone worships stone and places it on his head. Someone hangs the phallus (lingam) from his neck. .(pg.42)
ਕੋਉ ਬੁਤਾਨ ਕੋ ਪੂਜਤ ਹੈ ਪਸੁ ਕੋਉ ਮ੍ਰਿਤਾਨ ਕੋ ਪੂਜਨ ਧਾਇਓ ॥
Some fools worship idols and some go to worship the dead. (pg.42)
ਪਾਇ ਪਰੋ ਪਰਮੇਸਰ ਕੇ ਜੜ ਪਾਹਨ ਮੈਂ ਪਰਮੇਸਰ ਨਾਹੀ ॥੯੯॥
O fool! Fall at the feet of Lord-God, The Lord is not within the stone-idols.99.(pg.111)
ਤੇ ਭੀ ਬਸਿ ਮਮਤਾ ਹੁਇ ਗਏ ॥ਪਰਮੇਸਰ ਪਾਹਨ ਠਹਿਰਏ ॥੧੩॥
THEY were also overpowered by ‘mineness’ and exhibited the Lord in statues. 13. .(pg.134)
ਪਾਹਨ ਪੁਜੈ ਹੈ ਏਕ ਨ ਧਿਐ ਹੈ ਮਤ ਕੇ ਅਧਕ ਅਧੇਰਾ ॥ਅੰਮ੍ਰਿਤ ਕਹੁ ਤਜਿ ਹੈ ਬਿਖ ਕਹੁ ਭਜਿ ਹੈ ਸਾਝਹਿ ਕਹਹਿ ਸਵੈਰਾ ॥
Worshiping stones, they will not meditate on the One Lord; there will be the prevalence of darkness of many sects; leaving the ambrosia they will desire for poison, and they will name the evening time as early-morning; .(pg.1142) (eg hindus and christians)
ਤਾਸ ਕਿਉ ਨ ਪਛਾਨਹੀ ਜੋ ਹੋਹਿ ਹੈ ਅਬ ਹੈ ॥ਨਿਹਫਲ ਕਾਹੇ ਭਜਤ ਪਾਹਨ ਤੋਹਿ ਕਛੁ ਫਲਿ ਦੈ ॥
Why do you not pray to him, who will be there in the future and who is here in the present? You are worshipping stones uselessly; what will you gain by this worship? (pg. 1289)
ਅੱਛਤ ਧੂਪ ਦੀਪ ਅਰਪਤ ਹੈ ਪਾਹਨ ਕਛੂ ਨ ਖੈ ਹੈ ॥
Yogi Bhajan and now his 3HO sect are clearly against Sikhism. It is not as simple as saying “So what we do some yoga…” Guess what? These Hindu pujas, kundalini and tantric yoga practices are anti- Gurmat! Always were and always will be. It is not their fault that Yogi Bhajan led them astray just look at the pics above where Yogi Bhajan is clearly performing Hindu puja and allowing his family to also induldge in this ceremony. Dr. Trilochan Singh’s book which is critical of Yogi Bhajan in the light of Sikhism has even more relevance today than it did 35 years ago when it was written.
http://gurmukhyoga.com/forum/index.php?mode=page&id=1
View these new videos by Yogi Bhajan chela Gurmukh Kaur for more evidence that 3HOers are openly promoting Un Sikh like practices of Hindu fire puja, idol worship and occult astrology! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWm53xo-xnY&feature=related
EVERY Sikh is representative of the Guru and the Khalsa Panth, especially one who is in the public eye. If they behave in a way that breaches SRM (Sikh Rehit Maryada) the whole Khalsa suffers.
"Jab lag Khalsa rahe niara. tab lag tej dio mai sara.
jab eh gahe bipran ki reet. mai na karo in ki parteet".
"So long as Khalsa retains his distinct identity, I will give him my entire radiance and strength. But if he should take on a non-Sikh way of life, then I shall have no confidence in him and withdraw my support and protection". Guru Gobind Singh Ji
EVERY Sikh is representative of the Guru and the Khalsa Panth, especially one who is in the public eye. If they behave in a way that breaches SRM (Sikh Rehit Maryada) the whole Khalsa suffers.
It is becoming more and more obvious that 3HO (whoever that actually is) has consciously or unconsciously decided to position itself as part Sikh and part Hindu. It seems to me that they just flat out don't understand just how this will wound taditional Sikh sentiments as the Punjabis find out that Yogi Bhajan's 3HO are doing this. Maybe they just don't care.
Snatam Kaur Khalsa openly admits to performing Hindu Arti at the Parmarth Niketan Ashram in Rishikesh in a letter published by Spirit Voyage,
"To finish the ceremony Swami ji invited me to sit behind him. I found myself next to Gurmukh. She leaned over and asked with knowing eyes... “Are you ok?” I said to her “Yes.” But as she turned away and I found my eyes falling on the rushing waters of the Ganga, a voice inside screamed... “No, I am not ok! I am in pain!"
Then Snatam Kaur goes on to describe the Ganges river as a goddess when she says, "The teaching tent for the 11.11.11 course is right next to the Ganga River. It is a very deep experience to take in Her(The Ganges river) loving presence while practicing the sacred science of Kundalini yoga, chanting together, and meditating."
Find the full photo album of Yogi Bhajan chelas anti Sikh Shiv/Shakti "Mother Ganga" event on Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa's facebook page and on this link:
This is the view of the idol of Shiva and the Ganges river from where Snatam Kaur and Gurmukh Kaur are performing the Hindu Arti and Puja in the first pic above.
Sikhs do not perform these Hindu rituals which are strictly forbidden by the Sikh Reht Maryada. http://gurmukhyoga.com/forum/index.php?id=344
EVERY Sikh is representative of the Guru and the Khalsa Panth, especially one who is in the public eye. If they behave in a way that breaches SRM (Sikh Rehit Maryada) the whole Khalsa suffers.
"Jab lag Khalsa rahe niara. tab lag tej dio mai sara.
jab eh gahe bipran ki reet. mai na karo in ki parteet".
"So long as Khalsa retains his distinct identity, I will give him my entire radiance and strength. But if he should take on a non-Sikh way of life, then I shall have no confidence in him and withdraw my support and protection". Guru Gobind Singh Ji
In this latest article published by SikhNet, SikhNet blatantly supports and promotes Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa and her anti Sikh activities!http://www.sikhnet.com/news/gurmukh-kaur-coming-edmonton
SikhNet needs to follow the Sikh Reht & stop promoting Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa who is used as a "Poster Yogi" by Parmarth Niketan Ashram. http://gurmukhyoga.com/forum/index.php?id=374
Just read this update on Gurmukh Kaur's facebook page. Please note the people who are commenting and her posts. There doesn't appear to be any Sikhs posting or anything about Sikhism but rather Gurmukh gives her chelas false hope in the Vedic "akashic records" and some "magical Aquarian Age" date of 11-11-11. I don't know why Gurmukh doesn't change her name to Shiva Dasi Devi; that would be more in keeping with her practices. http://www.facebook.com/GurmukhKaurKhalsa?sk=wall&filter=1Status
Update
By Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa
We are supposed to be in a period where all your thoughts can move all over the place into realms of what you are going towards in your destiny. After November 4, 2011, whatever you have wished for, envisioned for your destiny, what you want to achieve to fulfill your life, will be set in the akashic records for 29 years.
So take the time now to write down what it is you want to achieve, what is important for your happiness and your destiny, and project into the future for 29 years.
You can edit the list until next week on Friday.
Take the list home and put it into a holy book, or on their altar, under their prayer book, etc, to purify the wishes and visions. Rework them as you see fit.
You don't have to know all the details for your visions and wishes. Just the general concept.
Sat Nam
Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa, Santam Kaur & The Chardi Kalaa jatha are an embarrassment to the Khalsa panth. Gurmukh has been photographed doing Hinduhoma fire pujas and doesn't even wear a Sikh kara. Even in the pic above which SikhNet so blatently publishes shows Gurmukh Kaur doing homage to the sun in Rishikesh on the river Ganga where you can see a Hindu temple in the backgroud of the pic. How can Sikhnet support this anti Sikh woman?
http://gurmukhyoga.com/forum/index.php?id=307
I pray Gurmukh Kaur will visit the small Gurdwara on the banks of the Ganges at Haridwar, called Gian Gothdri, which marks Guru Nanak's visit there.
When Guru Nanak saw people doing puja to the sun, as is Gurmukh Kaur in this picture, he asked what they were doing. "We are giving water to our thirsty forefathers who live on the sun", they said. So, he also waded into the river and started doing likewise but facing in the opposite direction. Everybody laughed at him and said, "Don't you even know which way the sun is?" He replied, "I've been away from my farm in the Punjab for quite some time and my fields are probably parched, so I thought I should take this opportunity to water them (in the west)". They all laughed some more and said, "Silly fool, Punjab is hundreds of miles away and this water is just falling a foot away right in front of you." Guru Nanak replied, " Oh, but I thought the sun was much further away?" A few probably understood what Guru Nanak was getting at, and stopped doing that futile nonsense, but most, like Gurmukh Kaur, carried on still blissfully ignorant.
"Jab lag Khalsa rahe niara. tab lag tej dio mai sara.
jab eh gahe bipran ki reet. mai na karo in ki parteet".
"So long as Khalsa retains his distinct identity, I will give him my entire radiance and strength. But if he should take on a non-Sikh way of life, then I shall have no confidence in him and withdraw my support and protection". Guru Gobind Singh Ji
EVERY Sikh is representative of the Guru and the Khalsa Panth, especially one who is in the public eye. If they behave in a way that breaches SRM (Sikh Rehit Maryada) the whole Khalsa suffers.
Let us look at Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa's name, the one whom SikhNet & 3HO so blithely dismiss as "a popular Yogini". Her first name is Gurmukh. Forget the nonsensical Yogi Bhajan translation; Gurmukh is a very powerful word from Gurbani, meaning that person whose face is forever turned towards the Guru. And that means Guru Nanak and his successors, not some Hindu Swami the demigod Shiva or the Mother Ganga river. Sometimes in Gurbani, Gurmukh refers to Guru Sahib himself.
How can a Gurmukh be doing Hindu puja?
Second name is Kaur, meaning a princess of the khalsa. The last name is Khalsa. Anyone who calls themselves Khalsa MUST live as a reflection of Guru Gobind Singh ji and his rehit. Otherwise they should call themselves something else.
She can do as much Hindu puja as she likes but she should spare the Khalsa the embarrassment of having to see it plastered all over the internet. It is absolutely against SRM and is very insulting to the Khalsa and indeed to all Sikhs, especially those whose relatives were slaughtered and raped by Hindus in 1984.
I don't know why she doesn't change her name to Shiva Dasi Devi; that would be more in keeping with her practices.
This is a response to a 3HOers comment in the Sikhism discussion group on facebook. Sarib Khalsa says: "Hey, what do you care how someone else wants to live their life? Her life is her life, not yours, you horses ass. And since when are "Singh" and "Kaur" not part of "Hindu" tradition? Where do you think they came from?
Whether you like it or not there is a huge cultural overlap with many aspects of "Hindu" culture and traditions. We used to not be separated or threatened by this. Overlaps existed without negating Sikh ideals or philosophy. British political interests wanted a wide, dark line demarcating the two. They wanted a loyal, neutered, anglicized, even christianized Sikhism, separate from and not aligned with the interests of "Hindus." They mostly got that. There are political interests today that want to interfere in similar ways, they come down from the same intelligence service lineage, those are the guys paying you.
And in case you didn't know, there ARE writings of "Hindu" saints in Guru Granth Sahib. Go bang your head against another wall."
Gursant Singh's reply: What is most shocking to me is your total lack of understanding or even caring about the sensibilities of most Sikhs from Punjab. While it is true that, in India, Sikhs and Hindus live side by side, amicably and peaceably, most Sikhs that I know are all too well aware of how the Central (Hindu) government has treated the Sikhs, especially those in the Punjab, in a terrible fashion ever since Indian independence.
If you need to know more, read the article here.
Two of my favorite Sikh writers teamed up together to write this article:
http://www.sikhnn.com/views/august-15-india%E2%80%99s-shackles-old-and-new?page=2
August 15: India’s Shackles, Old and New
It is becoming more and more obvious that 3HO (whoever that actually is) has consciously or unconsciously decided to position itself as part Sikh and part Hindu. It seems to me that they just flat out don't understand just how this will wound taditional Sikh sentiments as the Punjabis find out that Yogi Bhajan's 3HO are doing this. Maybe they just don't care.
I would be curious to find out who is feeding you this stuff about it all being the fault of the British that the Sikhs and Hindus are separate. I feel sure that you don't have that knowledge by your own research; it's clearly being spoon fed to you.
I don't think I need to reiterate about SRM and the teachings of the Guru Sahiban, I have posted all that here so many times already.
I have to say that I feel saddened by your childish arrogance and by the path that the Bhajanistas have chosen. As some are always posting here, they certainly have a right to worship in whatever way they want. But this creeping Hinduism is an insult to all those who died and suffered to preserve the separate identity of Sikhi that was given by Guru Nanak and solidified by Guru Gobind Singh.
Bulletin from the cause: Call to Truth and Authentic Sikhism
Go to Cause:
http://www.causes.com/causes/518356-call-to-truth-and-authentic-sikhism
Posted By: Gursant Singh
To: Members in Call to Truth and Authentic Sikhism
Hindu Homa (fire puja) ceremony performed by 3HOer Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa in Rishikesh! Stop these enemies of Sikhism! Write Sikhnet and Gurumustak Singh(Mr. Sikhnet) and insist they write an article denouncing these fake Sikh idol worshipers.
http://www.facebook.com/sikhnet
http://www.facebook.com/mrsikhnet
For Yogi Bhajan and now his students to indulge in Hindu practices, such as having a Homa (fire puja) ceremony in front of the Siri Guru Granth Sahib, to visit astrologers – as he did on a regular basis, to give people Sikh names through numerology rather than consult SGGS – I could go on and on – is totally hypocritical. His disciples are now following in his footsteps.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=169369606419559&aid=42382
The 3HO people may do whatever Hindu practices they like; there is no law against it but hey should not claim to be Khalsa or use Khalsa names, Singh and Kaur. For them to use the name Khalsa, when the overwhelming majority of them neither recites panj bani nor wear panj kaka, is hypocritical in the extreme. Of course this is really Yogi Bhajan’s fault for a really stupid decision to name all his students Singh/Kaur Khalsa, no matter what their level of commitment was to Sikhi. I believe thi